70 -- Brand Name for Cisco SAN Switches

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) plans to procure brand name Cisco SAN MDS9000 switches to support existing Cisco hardware infrastructure that is installed and in production for the USPTO?s automated information systems (AISs). This announcement is considered a brand name justification. This acquisition will be conducted utilizing Part 13 of the FAR, Simplified Acquisition procedures, and the test program authorized in FAR subpart 13.5, and the Patent and Trademark Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG). The acquisition will be conducted utilizing USPTO?s existing ID/IQ contracts. A solicitation will not be released to any other vendors. Specifically, the purchase is to expand the USPTO?s Data Facility West. These switches will allow storage to remain centralized in the Data Facility East while supporting the Data Facility West. This expansion is necessary to provision storage located in the Data Facility East for the Patent File Wrapper (PFW) environments in the Data Facility West. Maximum efficiencies for a successful infrastructure spanning multiple data centers are to acquire specific native mode protocols from a single manufacturer. Cisco networks hardware is the USPTO?s established standard based commercial product for its AISs in accordance with the USPTO?s Technical Reference Model (TRM). It is essential that the USPTO acquire Cisco switch products to maintain the continuity of the network traffic and business processes and maintain compatibility. In addition, purchase of the same Cisco hardware will reduce and/or share the cost of spares with other network projects, and reduce the maintenance cost by not having to maintain different similar functioning products. Purchase of different hardware will require additional engineering design and training, component testing, system testing, etc. to ensure reliability and compatibility testing which will delay the mission critical project time and increase the costs beyond the budget limits. If you have questions regarding this notice, they may be addressed by email to Sylvia Van Dyke at [email protected].