Description
Justification for other than Full and Open Competition 1. Contracting activity: US Department of Veteran Affairs Center for Acquisition Innovation - Austin 1615 Woodward Street Austin, TX 78772 2. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Center for Acquisition Innovation Austin (CAIA) plans to procure EMC backup solution. The VA OI&T sites in Hines, IL, Philadelphia, PA, and Silver Spring, MD have been configured to support the VA VACO and OI&T Exchange production applications along with other OI&T applications using EMC software technology that cannot be duplicated on non-EMC Symmetrix DMX hardware platforms. The EMC Control Center product suite has been deployed to manage the VA OI&T storage infrastructure. These functions have their maximum impact using the unique features of the EMC Symmetrix array operating environment known as Enginuity. The data on the tapes can not be accessed utilizing any other proprietary backup application (Veritas, Commvault, HP, IBM, etc). VA Central Office (VACO) applications utilize proprietary EMC backup solutions (TimeFinder Exchange Integration Module/TF-EIM & TimeFinder SQL Integration Module/TSIM) to backup their primary e-mail & Exchange environment. This includes the Secretary of the VA and his entire Executive Staff and Cabinet members (Deputy Directors, etc). The TF/EIM and TF-SIM microcode software products are exclusive to the EMC Symmetrix DMX storage array platform. The VA OGC (Office for General Counsel) and Justice Dept. have set forth special sequester mandates associated with ALL VA electronic media being backed up (this includes all VACO e-mail data being written & backed up to tape). At present there are approximately 7500 tapes (comprising 2.6 petabytes of data) that are under special mandate by the VA OGC all of these tapes are in either EMC Legato Networker or EMC Data Manager (EDM) format. The data on the tapes can not be accessed utilizing any other proprietary backup application (Veritas, Commvault, HP, IBM, etc). OI&T has 5 EMC Symmetrix arrays distributed as follows: Hines 1 Symm 8830, 1 DMX 3000; Falling Waters 1 DMX 2000, 1 DMX 3000; Silver Spring 1 Symm 8830. OI&T have a requirement to replace the 2 units at Falling Waters and Hines with a single DMX4 at each location. The 8830 at Silver Spring should be replaced with a new DMX1000. This enables the VA to realize its Tech Refresh goals with minimal disruption and impact on the staff. 3. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. FAR 6.302-1(2)(ii) and 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1). 4. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above. This is a brand-name procurement. VA Central Office (VACO) applications utilize proprietary EMC backup solutions (TimeFinder Exchange Integration Module/TF-EIM & TimeFinder SQL Integration Module/TSIM) to backup their primary e-mail & Exchange environment. This includes the Secretary of the VA and his entire Executive Staff and Cabinet members (Deputy Directors, etc). The TF/EIM and TF-SIM microcode software products are exclusive to the EMC Symmetrix DMX storage array platform. If non-EMC hardware were to be purchased to replace the current EMC storage arrays both the application data backup software infrastructure and the Storage Resouce Management infrastructure would need to be replaced. VA has a substantial investment in EMC ControlCenter and this investment can be leveraged to reduce the cost of acquisition, implementation, training and operation. The ControlCenter server hardware already deployed in the three sites can be reused in an integrated enterprise solution to gain benefits in scalability, manageability and asset utilization. The software acquisition costs can be significantly lower as well since VA owns most of the required components and would only need to purchase the additional functionality to enable the Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning feature. The implementation process is also simplified given that the framework for ControlCenter is already successfully deployed at all the sites and need only be upgraded and incorporated into the enterprise design. Since ControlCenter employs a single user interface, the VA storage managers are already familiar with the toolset and the need for training is minimized. To implement & integrate a new solution to replace the existing one would require months of integration testing and would be an extremely complicated operation cost of performing such this type of migration would be very expensive and will place the patient health care records in jeopardy. It took 2 years to get the existing environment in a stable condition due to the complexity of the new VA Exchange architecture migrating to a new storage platform would require a similar transition which would have a negative impact on the operation of the current VACO Exchange email environment. Data protection requirements have continued to evolve to a point where the backup application needs to manage multiple tiers of data protection from tape, to disk, to snaps, across a variety of applications within both physical and virtual environments, comprehensive scheduling and policies, operational and disaster recovery scenarios. The VA OGC (Office for General Counsel) and Justice Department have set forth special sequester mandates associated with ALL VA electronic media being backed up (this includes all VACO e-mail data being written & backed up to tape). At present there are approximately 7,500 tapes (comprising 2.6 petabytes of data) that are under special mandate by the VA OGC all of these tapes are in either EMC Legato Networker or EMC Data Manager (EDM) format. The data on the tapes can not be accessed utilizing any other proprietary backup application (Veritas, Commvault, HP, IBM, etc). The cost associated with migrating the data from the 7,500 tapes to another format would be in the millions (approximately $3.4 million) and will result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition and will cause unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agencys requirements. The NetWorker and EDM backup environments (due to the manner in which these environments were deployed and setup in the VA) require the use of an EMC Symmetrix storage system in order to function. 5. Efforts to Solicit Potential Sources; Market Research Conducted; and Sources which expressed interest in writing: The VA looked at several vendors products to see which one would meet the requirements the best. However; in order to deploy new backup solution, the VA will have to purchase new software and new network management servers will need to be build and configure. Additional hardware and extra man-hours needed to make it work will result in substantial duplication of cost to the government that will not be recovered through competition--VA could not justify the extra expense. 6. Determination of Fair and Reasonable. The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable based on historical data, price analysis, and negotiations. Market research was conducted by the program office and the contracting officer. The market research identified numerous vendors that offer this brand name product. The price is determined fair and reasonable based on adequate competition. 7. Other Supporting Data: Although other tools might be used, EMC provides the best chance for success due to its cost and tight fit/integration with current product it provides. A sizeable amount of effort would be needed to use another tool and will result in substantial duplication of cost to the government that will not be recovered through competition.