Cloud Interconnect Services and Support
Objectives
The objective of this contract is to acquire secure, high-speed direct connections from the FDA to the CSPs via of an ICSP. The acquisition will include the network circuits that connect FDA data centers to the Interconnect Service Provider data centers, Interconnect Service, technical support, and professional services to install, configure, test, and deploy the Interconnect Service to production. The FDA data centers include Ashburn Data Center (ADC) and White Oak Data Center (WODC). This contract will enable FDA to:
• Fulfill security controls for the AWS GovCloud to operate under FISMA high categorization; FISMA high categorization requires high availability (HA), and HA is one of the benefits of the Interconnect Service.
• Increase network performance and reduce latency issues between the FDA network and CSPs; the Interconnect Service enables real-time access to cloud resources and services
• Provide increase network bandwidth needed to migrate large applications and to transfer large data sets from FDA on-premise data centers to the cloud in high speed
• Provide secure connections to the CSPs which comply with all Federal cloud computing regulations and security standards that are specified in Section 3.1; improve security by by-passing the public internet with a direct connection to the CSPs
• Support the monitoring and inspection of cloud traffic between the FDA network and the CSPs
• Increase communication reliability since faster data transfers with high-speed connections are less vulnerable to system timeouts.
• Facilitate Disaster Recovery (DR) with high speed direct and simultaneous connections to multiple CSPs that are geographically distributed across the Continental United States (CONUS)
• Minimize resources required to acquire, implement, and manage individual connections from the FDA to each CSP
• Extend the FDA network infrastructure footprint with greater reach and flexibility to manage network resources in the ICSP infrastructure facilities/data centers
• Increase security and performance through direct connections that are more secure and reliable, and have lower latency than public internet connections
• Provide on-demand provisioning of connections to multiple CSPs
Instructions to Quoters
General Instructions
This is a combined synopsis solicitation issued on Federal Business Opportunities. This is an unrestricted competitive solicitation.
This acquisition shall utilize Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection procedures. By submission of its offer, the Quoter accepts all solicitation requirements, including terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements. Failure to meet a requirement may result in an offer being determined technically unacceptable. The evaluation factors that establish the requirements of acceptability are set forth in the solicitation. The award will be made based on the lowest evaluated price of quotations meeting or exceeding the acceptability standards for non-cost factors.
The government intends to select one contractor for award of this effort.
Quoters shall submit quotations in the following formats for the identified Volume:
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume I (Technical in Microsoft Word format);
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume I in PDF format;
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume II in Excel Word format;
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume II in Microsoft Word/PDF format;
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume III (Small Business in Microsoft Word format); and
• One (1) electronic copy of Volume III in PDF format.
All files submitted SHALL NOT be secured or locked.
All file names shall be limited to 45 characters. (i.e. 45_characters_limit.docx)
Quoters may submit questions regarding the RFQ. Quoters shall submit all questions to Steven Chang via email at Tzeleong.Chang@fda.hhs.gov. The FDA must receive the questions no later than 12 Noon Eastern Time on July 18, 2019. The subject line shall read: RFQ No. FDA-RFQ-19-1213662: FDA Cloud Interconnect Services and Support - Questions. Questions shall be in Microsoft Word or email format. Questions shall NOT be in table, spreadsheet or boxed format. FDA may not answer questions received after this date and time, and will not answer questions submitted to individuals other than the named contact. No phone calls please. FDA will provide Quoters with answers to all questions received via an Amendment.
All quotations shall be sent by e-mail to the following e-mail address: Tzeleong.Chang@fda.hhs.gov@fda.hhs.gov. E-mail shall be limited to 10 MB. Quoters shall not include macros. All macros may be stripped from emails by the system.
Quotations are due July 29, 2019, 3:00 PM (Eastern Time).
Quoters not following all the instructions specified in this solicitation may be deemed as non-responsive to the solicitation requirement and may not be evaluated, nor be considered for award.
Quoters taking exception to the solicitation requirement may be deemed as non-responsive to the solicitation requirement and may not be evaluated, nor be considered for award.
To facilitate the award process, ALL quotations shall include a statement regarding the terms and conditions herein as follows:
"The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document without modification or deletion."
The Government will award the contract to the responsible Quoter whose quotation represents the best value to the Government and contains fair and reasonable pricing. FDA is conducting this source selection using a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable methodology. The Government will evaluate offers based on the evaluation factors described below:
• FACTOR 1: Technical Acceptability (Acceptable/Unacceptable)
• FACTOR 2: Past Performance (Risk Assessment)
• FACTOR 3: Small Business (Acceptable/Unacceptable) [Volume III]
The Government will evaluate technical quotations as Acceptable or Unacceptable. For Factor 1, Quoters must receive Acceptable for all criteria in order to be considered for award. Offers receiving an Unacceptable may render their entire quotation Unacceptable and may not be considered for award.
For Factor 2, the Government will evaluate past performance and assign the following ratings: High Risk, Moderate Risk, Low Risk, or Neutral Risk. Quoters without past performance will receive a Neutral Risk rating.
For Factor 3, the Government will evaluate the small business volume as Acceptable or Unacceptable. Quoters must receive Acceptable in order to be considered for award. Offers receiving an Unacceptable may render their entire quotation Unacceptable and may not be considered for award.
The Government reserves the right to award a contract without communications. Quoters are advised to submit their best quotation in their initial submissions.
Award Basis
The Government will award a contract resulting from this Request for Quotation to the responsible Quoter whose quotation conforms to the Request for Quotation and represents the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered.
The Government is conducting this source selection using a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable methodology based on price and non-price factors. Price may be the determining factor for all technically Acceptable quotations.
Steven Chang, Contract Specialist, Phone 240-402-7527, Email Tzeleong.Chang@fda.hhs.gov
