Cloud Computing Infrastructure Expansion

This justification supports the award of an out of scope modification to a GSA Schedule 70 task order with Terremark Federal Group, Inc. to add technology infrastructure and service requirements not contemplated at time of award. The additional services are required to provide sufficient cloud computing to support the operations of the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) and Data Services Hub (DSH). These two projects support the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health care reform implementations. The Contracting Officer considers the work contained in the subject modification to be out of scope and requiring this justification. Both parties could not have contemplated that this additional capacity was required. This additional capacity was not included in the original task order, and therefore the addition of the work is justified and approved with this Limited Sources Justification. CMS could not have anticipated the need to add these additional services. Previous resource estimates gave CMS reasonable assurance that the capacity procured through this order was sufficient for the expected demands. CMS learned through performance and stress testing conducted on September 26, 2013 that the Terremark cloud would only be able to handle about 10,000 concurrent users. This was far short of the expected peak traffic of 50,000 concurrent users. The task order did not have a specific concurrent user performance requirement. OIS quickly realized that the cloud services would have to be expanded in order to be able to meet the expected user demands. There is insufficient time to competitively procure the needed services. A procurement action like this would normally take about four to six weeks to procure. The exchanges will be operational when the open enrollment period begins on October 1, 2013. CMS believed if the additional services were not added urgently, the Exchanges would not function as designed and citizens would not be able to comparison shop for affordable health care insurance. Modification 10 was executed on September 30, 2013.