Hyper-converged Infrastructure Solution

The USCG is conducting market research to seek sources and to gain knowledge on industry's capability on hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution. NOTE: THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS ISSUED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT A SOLICITATION; NOR IS IT A PROMISE TO ISSUE A SOLICITATION. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. Presently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) are not seeking proposals. Offerors are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI; and that all associated costs shall be the sole responsibility of the interested party. While Offerors are strongly encouraged to submit a response, deciding not to do so does not preclude participation in any future solicitations. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding upon the Government. All submissions will become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned to the Offeror. Also, other than acknowledgment of receipt, if requested by the Offeror, those who respond to this RFI should anticipate no feedback with regard to its submission. 1.0 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES This is an RFI to identify available offerings for equipment and services; this is a new requirement. The USCG seeks information from Offerors on their ability to provide HCI services. Offerors should provide information pertaining to the points below: The Offeror's ability to meet requirements specifically for a HCI solution. (NOTE: Refer to Exhibit A, the HCI Requirements Traceability matrix, for further information.) The Offeror's Best Practices/Approaches to meeting the DoD/DHS Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) requirements. The Offeror's typical labor categories and staffing required for HCI services: Program Management, hardware installation/support, 24/7 technical support, etc. The Offeror's commercially available pricing/service arrangements available to the USCG for these HCI services. Contract vehicles available to the USCG to procure these HCI services. 2.0 DESCRIPTION Due to the hardware that is currently supporting the core virtualization vSphere infrastructure to have reached end of life, the USCG is considering plans to procure a HCI solution that provides all three layers: network (physical and virtual), compute, and storage in one integrated solution with an ability to scale up. The chosen solution will involve a technology refresh on the unclassified network. The solution will be installed at these USCG District locations: D01, Boston, MA; D05, Portsmouth, VA and Alexandria, VA; D07, Miami, FL; USCG HQS, Washington, DC; and Kearneysville, WV. Based on analysis of usage trends, and forecasting, each location will receive a customized cluster of nodes to meet its needs. The USCG is looking to continue simplifying the deployment of hardware supporting the existing virtualization infrastructure seamlessly resuming to host existing and new business-critical server virtual machines. Additionally, the Coast Guard is looking to continue its fault tolerance policies, making compute, storage, and network resources reliable and available to hosted server virtual machines, while keeping the physical footprint and power usage small at the respective District location. 3.0 RFI RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Electronic files larger than 5 MB shall be broken down into multiple files with no one file exceeding 5 MB. Each electronic submission shall include: The RFI number in the subject line. The maximum number of pages per submission shall be limited to 10 pages. Times New Roman, 12 inch Font and 1 inch margins. The file number and total files being submitted (e.g., File 1 of 4, File 2 of 4, etc.) in the subject line, if submission includes more than one email. A Point of Contact (POC), phone number and email address of the person (in the body of the email) to be contacted regarding any correspondence between the Government and the Offeror. The POC shall be capable of addressing questions or issues associated with the submission and content of the RFI. Business Size applicable to the NAICS code: 518210 A brief summary of email content, Offeror name and the firm's mailing address. Interested parties having the expertise and capabilities are invited to submit detailed information discussing their capabilities to Mr. Michael McFadden via email at contact@example.gov by 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on May 14, 2021. IMPORTANT NOTE: Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid DHS, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned. Responses to this RFI may be evaluated by Government technical experts drawn from staff within DHS and other Federal agencies. The Government reserves the right to utilize Offeror support in the evaluation process. All Offerors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and source selection information. This action will be governed under DHS law enforcement sensitive guidelines.