Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputer System - High Performance Computing Services

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to issue a solicitation for High Performance Computing (HPC) services to support its Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) program within the National Weather Service’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The contract will provide supercomputing capability as a service, which includes contractor-owned HPC resources such as labor, equipment, software, facilities, and utilities necessary for operational supercomputing. Additionally, it will cover ancillary HPC supplies and service purchasing capabilities. This follow-on contract is expected to be a single-award, Indefinite-Delivery-Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract with a potential ten-year period of performance, including an eight-year base ordering period and a two-year option for transition support. The contract ceiling is estimated at $505.2 million, and contract types will include Firm-Fixed Price, Time-and-Material, and Cost-Reimbursable task and delivery orders. The solicitation process will follow full and open competition under FAR Part 15 procedures, with the NAICS code 541512 for Computer Systems Design Services and a small business size standard of $27.5 million. NOAA planned to release a draft solicitation in early 2019 with a subsequent final solicitation by mid-April 2019 and anticipated award around February 2020, with performance beginning in March 2020. The contract will not combine WCOSS with NOAA’s Research and Development HPC requirements, which will remain separate. Interested vendors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) to be eligible. NOAA will provide all solicitation documents electronically via the Federal Business Opportunities website and will hold an Industry Day in Silver Spring, MD to support the solicitation. No government reimbursement for proposal preparation costs will be provided, and responses to the notice will not be returned.