Data Storage Upgrade and Migration at Kansas City, MO Data Center

This notice is informational only. This requriement is being competed under NASA SEWP. CONTRACTING OFFICER'S STATEMENT REGARDING BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION EMC Storage Area Network Equipment Upgrade/Replacement 1. Identification of Agency and the Contracting Activity: US Forest Service, WO-CIO 2. Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved: Brand Name Justification approval is hereby requested for upgrade and partial replacement of EMC storage area network (SAN) equipment required to support the FS information technology infrastructure. 3. Description of Supplies or Services Required to Meet Agency's Need Including Estimated the Value: 3.1 Services Required: Experienced EMC personnel or authorized agents work with the Forest Service to deliver the engagement. This engagement includes the following sites and technologies: Data Migration -Full Migration This part of the engagement includes the following components: a. Existing physical hosts: 300 b. Existing enterprise directors: 6 c. Existing CLARiiON: 5 d. Existing SAN fabrics: 2 e. Source storage arrays involved: 2 f. Target storage arrays involved: 2 g. TB of useable source data to migrate: 200.00 h. Data migration events: 4 i. Hosts for test migrations: 2 During this part of the engagement: j. Collects host environment configuration information using Storage tools. k. Collects SAN switch and director information for analysis. l. Collects existing CLARiiON storage configuration information. m. Completes analysis of existing host data collected. n. Completes analysis of existing switch and/or director information collected. o. Performs analysis on existing CLARiiON data collected. p. Performs discovery, correlation, and analysis of the migration environment. q. Plans the migration solution. r. Documents the proposed architecture in the Configuration Guide. s. Develops the Test Plan. t. Conducts an implementation review meeting. u. Validates that the equipment is on-site at the appropriate location with power and cable requirements met. v. Validates the migration environment to ensure the correct assets are migrated and that interoperability and performance are assured. w. Verifies the network, server, or storage configuration changes. x. Coordinates with the Forest Service technical staff on maintenance windows for planned events y. Conducts test migrations. 3.2 Equipment Required: CLARiiON Cx4-960 - 60SATA/40FC Hardware - 5 Racks - (24) 8Gbps ports - 63 DAE - (655) 600GB 15K rpm drives (including 20 hot spares) o 341TB useable - (285) 2TB drives 7200 rpm (including 10 hot spares) o 501TB useable 4. Identification of the Justification Rationale (see 8.405-6(a) and (b)) and, if applicable, demonstration of the proposed contractor's unique qualifications to provide the required supply and service: EMC is a market leader in storage technology, so much so that the word "EMC" is routinely used when referring to storage technology. The EMC Storage technology provides familiar and functional storage technology for US Forest Service infrastructure. The EMC storage technology has been the primary technology throughout the FS data center for the past 5 1/2 years and has been integrated into existing General Support System (GSS) and Application Hosting Environment (AHE) documentation, policy, and procedures. Changing to a different brand of storage technology would result in substantial increase in cost and complexity to the Forest Service. Switching to a different manufacture at this time would; require certification testing in the FS environment and accreditation documentation, re-training of SAN administration personnel on the use of an alternate storage technology would become unwieldy at this point in time, additional complexity in software management, procurement and licensing for a different vendor would not be an acceptable solution at this point in time. Currently the FS is embarking on a Storage Solution Architecture Plan, upon completion all further procurements will be based on this documentation. An effective EMC storage technology for the data center is necessary for the migration of unstructured data, web technology, and applications from legacy Forest cells to the data center. The EMC storage technology provides a well known, familiar interface with minimal barriers to usability to Agency employees, application programmers, and contractors that need to support the FS Infrastructure. Due to the nature of the information it is critical to the Forest Service to maintain the continuity of the known storage technology in order to assure that there are no changes which would attribute to lack of training and getting used to a new systems as well as the break in service that would be required to obtain revised security, certification and accreditation documentation and retraining of personnel. a) Leverage existing investment: The agency has already invested in the purchase of EMC hardware and software for use in the agency's data centers. Using this brand source alleviates possible compatibility issues, required testing and certification of new hardware and software, and delays in our ability to implement which would ultimately impact the DCI migration programs ability to complete the consolidation of 183 cells into the Kansas City Data Center by September 2011. b) Reduce integration costs and time to market: FS support technicians will be able to use familiar software and hardware for initial installation, updates and administration. This is critical to maintain continuity of services in existence today. c) Reduce support costs: Agency technicians have had extensive agency/vendor training to support EMC software and hardware. d) Provide priority service: Due to the long-standing relationship with EMC, the agency would be provided priority service with a dedicated account manager working through the prime contractor to support FS purchases and provide support. e) Other product specific advantages: This product allows the FS to take advantage of our work force that is trained to support EMC software and hardware and its integration into the agency's infrastructure. ? 5. Determination by the Ordering Activity Contracting Officer that the Order Represents the Best Value Consistent with 8.404(d): The initial SAN equipment purchased in the first phase was competitively acquired through NASA SEWP. The current competition will focus on which NASA SEWP IV offers the best value, price and other factors considered for the EMC brand equipment and related services. Price competition will be obtained through this RFQ. 6. A Description of Market Research Conducted Among Schedule Holders and the Results or a Statement of the Reason Market Research Was Not Conducted: The initial SAN competition was performed in June 2009 on NASA SEWP with eight firms responding and award was made to the lowest priced technically capable firm. In February 2011 an RFI was posted on NASA SEWP to determine the availability of EMC equipment or equipment compatible with EMC to add 1 petabyte of additional storage to the existing Forest Service storage at the Kansas City Data Center. There were responses from 12 firms. None of the responding firms proposed EMC equipment. Subsequent to receipt of RFI responses, the Kansas City Data Center informed the Forest Service that due to space and power limitations, no additional storage could be added beyond the current storage footprint and power usage. As a result, this requirement changed from one of simply adding storage capability to one of replacing the existing EMC storage equipment with new EMC equipment capable of storing more data within the existing rack space designated for Forest Service use. Market research performed on 22 March 2011 showed there are 37 suppliers on NASA SEWP that can supply EMC equipment of which 21 are authorized EMC resellers. 7. Any Other Facts Supporting the Justification: None 8. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any Barriers That Led to the Restricted Consideration Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for the Supplies or Services is Made: In the future when additional data storage is required, the Forest Service will review the status of the Kansas City, MO data center to determine if compatible non-EMC can be used. This will be accomplished by a detailed technical review and additional market research.