Materiel Solutions for Cross Domain Solution (CDS) Data Access

PURPOSE: This is a Request for Information (RFI), as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). The Government is issuing this RFI in an effort to understand market availability, technical characteristics, and functionality of Information Technology (IT) tools, applications or products capable of satisfying the technical, functional, and/or operational capabilities described in this RFI. This is not a request for proposal, request for quotation, or invitation for bid, nor does its issuance obligate or restrict the Government to an eventual acquisition approach. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses from this RFI or pay for the preparation of any information submitted or use of such information. All information received from this RFI will be used for planning and market research purposes only. All information received in response to the RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. BACKGROUND: The purpose of this RFI is to gather information on materiel solutions incorporating cost-saving approaches and best practices for accessing data from sources operating in the unclassified domain from within the classified domain. This capability is required by the 624th Operations Center (624 OC) to improve their situational awareness and command and control of Air Force cyber resources. Information received as a result of this RFI will be used to formulate one or more Concept Characterization Technical Description (CCTD) documents required by Cross-Domain Solution (CDS) Early Systems Engineering. These CCTD(s) are being produced by ESC/XR as part of the development planning (DP) efforts (including Cross-Domain Solution (CDS) and User Defined Operating Picture (UDOP)) requested by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) to address 624 OC's requirements. ESC/XR has been tasked with leading this DP effort and provides the following high-level descriptions of data fusion capability: ? The CDS DP effort is in response to an Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Commander (CC) request to provide assistance in the development and support of a CDS capability. The CDS will need to individually consider discrete variables for correlation, aggregation, or other forms of analysis that will reduce the cognitive burden on the operators and facilitate effective Course of Action (COA) development and decision making. ? Both classified and unclassified information must be aggregated and analyzed to identify trends, determine plans for cyber operations, and inject operational impacts into an operational picture of AF Cyber systems. Cross-domain solutions will need to pass information from the NIPRNet to the SIPRNet to facilitate correlation, pairing of vulnerabilities and attack vectors, and mission impact assessments for cyber resources in both domains. ? Analyzed data from both domains will be used to enhance the operational picture of cyber resources for improved situational awareness and to improve the effectiveness of decision support tools in developing COAs. ASSUMPTIONS ? Source data residing in the unclassified domain will exist in diverse forms including query responses from hardware, application software, and databases, web site information, streaming multicast data, text files, and human inputs. ? Sources in the AF's unclassified domain are geographically dispersed across the globe. ? The material solutions must use Open Technology Development (OTD) practices with open interfaces, open standards, and open software. It is preferred that solutions be compatible with a service-oriented architecture (SOA) compliant integration framework. ? The products should provide a standards-based and common integration infrastructure to accept, store, aggregate, and display data with a CDS that is flexible and modifiable to maximize operational situational awareness for Cyber Command and Control (C2). ? The products will fully enable rapid integration of data from Cyber sensor feeds, C2 and other applications, as well as Situational Awareness (SA) tools. ? The products should include on?site integration support for data feeds integration, aggregation, and third party Cyber capability integration. REQUESTED INFORMATION: ? Describe product solutions which support classified domain access to diverse data types from geographically dispersed unclassified domain sources. ? List any Department of Defense/National Security Agency security certifications obtained or currently under review for products in the proposed solution. ? Describe any data preprocessing capabilities embedded in the product solution, e.g. calibration, formatting, normalization, etc. ? Describe user training and/or contracted support requirements to establish and maintain solution configurations in response to rapidly changing military operations. ? Describe any warranty, long-term maintenance, or software licensing programs associated with the proposed solution. ? Describe any near-term functional improvements planned for products in the proposed solution, and/or a general roadmap of projected improvements over the next 5 years. ? Discuss current/recent past experience [within the last five (5) years] in supporting similar efforts in the DoD (preferred) or other U.S. Federal Government department/agency (if applicable) and other business sectors (finance, logistics, healthcare, law enforcement, marketing, etc.). ? Describe any proven experience delivering complicated systems engineering and technical development services within the Federal Government, with emphasis in the telecommunications and network security environments, successful implementation of SOA, and use of collaborative technologies in delivered capabilities. RESPONSES: Product capability responses to this RFI are requested to be submitted by e-mail to Cassandra.Carlson.ctr@hanscom.af.mil and Tim.Greene@hanscom.af.mil not later than 1500 hours EST on 24 February 2012. Responses should be single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, with one inch margins all around, compatible with MS Office Word 2007, with a total page count not to exceed fifteen (15) pages of text with no more than twenty (20) pages of attachments. The response should not exceed a 5 MB mail limit. Responses to this RFI will be reviewed by military personnel, government civilians, DoD contractors and MITRE System Engineers; all covered by non-disclosure agreements. MITRE Corporation is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) and, as such, fulfills an unbiased, non-profit role for the Air Force. The responses may be forwarded to other Government entities in consideration for applicability to other programs. Be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All government, DoD contractor and MITRE personal reviewing RFI responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as described 41 USC 423.