HPC STORAGE LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

The General Services Administration, Federal Technology Service (GSA-FTS), on behalf of the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), is issuing this request for information to industry. The HPCMP is considering pursuing a multi-year contract for the purchase and maintenance of commercially-supported storage lifecycle management (SLM) software (combining information lifecycle management and hierarchical storage management) to support the HPCMP's HPC Centers data file management and archival requirements. In addition, limited direct technical services in support of customer-specific software enhancements and installations may also be pursued. It is envisioned that the contract will provide a capability for the HPCMP for approximately 10 years beginning in fiscal year 2009. Software products from Sun Microsystems Inc. are currently addressing the hierarchical storage management requirement. Currently the HPCMP is responsible for a wide variety of allocated HPC-class systems distributed across 6 large computing centers. The HPCMP web-site www.hpcmo.hpc.mil provides links to activities and resources associated with the Program. As a part of the early stages of formulating this acquisition, the GSA is surveying potential candidates for participation as well as seeking early input that will assist in formulating the architecture of the contract. Items of interest include: a. Storage Lifecycle Management consists of a layered software capability that manages locality and retention of data files by providing the ability to associate metadata to those data files, and to report on and to act on that metadata in conjunction with HPCMP-specified policies. The SLM capability will determine how and where to provide most efficient storage for those data files, and will identify when data files no longer need to be retained. HPCMP users commonly perform computations on multiple HPC systems, so the SLM-based system must provide the ability for data files to be accessible from multiple HPC systems in a center and should facilitate the development of a capability for wide-area sharing of data files between HPCMP centers. The HPCMP Disaster Recovery (DR) facility will be an integral part of the information lifecycle management and hierarchical storage capability provided through SLM. Sample characteristics of the SLM are provided in Exhibit 1. b. The Government considers the significant scale of implementation associated with the selected product(s) coupled with the long term commitment to the selected product, maintenance and services to be unique. As a function of this, the HPCMP is pursuing a correspondingly unique software licensing and pricing model. This is envisioned to go beyond traditional - volume discounts to view the HPCMP requirement as a long term conglomerate of dynamically changing and growing resources versus an assembly of many pieces that incrementally change from year to year. The GSA is seeking input from industry with respect to an industry-acceptable licensing model that can effectively address this unique environment. c. The Government envisions a procurement of SLM software, support and training that will occur during 2008. Acquisition of supporting hardware and integration with the SLM software will occur following award. In order to validate that the proposed solution can scale to support the HPCMP's needs, a limited Capability Demonstration by each offeror is planned as part of a proposal evaluation process. Details of the Capability Demonstration may be found in Exhibit 2. Please note that the Capability Demonstration will focus on performance characteristics of a proposed solution, and will not address all aspects of the required system functionality. An information briefing will be offered to interested vendors. The briefing is scheduled for the morning of June 23, 2008 beginning at 10:00AM EDT and will be followed by vendor-specific one-on-one information exchange meetings and question and answer sessions individually scheduled for the afternoon of June 23 to host all interested vendors. Each vendor will be allowed 30 minutes for a one-on-one session. Please provide any comments addressing the above items as well as any other information that might be of value in formulating the architecture of this acquisition to Ms. Deborah Joeckel at deborah.joeckel@gsa.gov and Mr. Eddie Mills at eddie.mills@gsa.gov by COB June 30, 2008. Comments and questions may be submitted to GSA at any time during this Request for Information.