D -- Off-Site Storage Facility for Magnetic Media

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a requirement for a qualified contractor to provide all labor, facilities, and equipment necessary for an off-site secure magnetic media vault facility for SSA's disaster recovery program for the agency's Headquarters complex located in Woodlawn (Baltimore County) Maryland area. Magnetic tape media contains vital computer programs and data that are essential to the operation and support of SSA. Offsite protective storage is required as a measure to preserve this vital data should a destructive event occur at the Agency's National Computer Center (NCC). The location of the Contractor's vault facility must be within proximity of the Woodlawn complex that allows for: 1) transporting the magnetic tape media to and from SSA on a daily schedule; 2) same pickup/delivery day for the magnetic media removed from the SSA data center and received at the Contractor's vault facility; 3) recall of critical magnetic tape-based data to be completed within 2 hours from time of notification to the Contractor that the media is needed at the SSA data center; and 4) delivery of magnetic tape media from the contractor's facility to the SSA disaster recover facility in New Jersey for both planned and unplanned operations and return of the media to the SSA NCC. Contractor personnel shall be required to undergo complete background investigations. SSA anticipates awarding a firm-fixed price contract with a base year and four (4) 1-year options, if exercised. The NAICS code for this solicitation is 541519. The small business size standard for the NAICS code is $21 million. This acquisition is being conducted under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 12 regarding the acquisition of commercial items and FAR Part 13.5 Test Program for Certain Commercial Items. Solicitation number SSA-RFQ-03-0159 is scheduled for release on/about February 13, 2003 with responses due not later than March 4, 2003. The solicitation will be available for downloading from the Federal Procurement website at www.fedbizopps.gov. Requests for hard copies will not be honored. See Numbered Note 1. Offers received from other than small business sources will be deemed unacceptable and will not be considered.