Amendment 2: Updated Call allowing for twelve (12) pages for technical solution. Also, AFLCMC publishes the industry questions and responses.
Amendment 1: Update deadlines to the Call. Specifically, updated industry questions, AFLCMC response and proposal due dates. Further, updates throughout the document to clarify. AFLCMC includes Hydra CSO Call FINAL Rev 1, which supercedes all prior versions.
NAICS Code and associated description: 518210
Federal Agency Name and Contracting Officer: Department of Air Force (DAF) Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Neal Duiker, neal.duiker@us.af.mil
Commercial Solutions Opening Title: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation: Commercial Services Offering (CSO) – AFLCMC Data Operation CSO, Closed, One-Step, titled “Project Hydra - CSO Call 6”
Commercial Solutions Opening Number: FA8600-23-S-C056
Commercial Solutions Opening Type: This is the initial announcement under Call 6. This will be a One-Step Call solicitation.
NOTE: Word Copy of the Final Call is attached to this announcement. This Word Document contains the full instructions and evaluation criteria. This published description contains only a portion of the Call details. All interested vendors are instructed to use the Word document as the authoritative source for full Call instructions. Further, in the event there is a discrepancy between this posting and the attached word document, the word document shall control.
PROPOSAL DUE DATE AND TIME: Proposals will be accepted until 18 November 2024 at 1700 ET. Proposals may be submitted at any time during this period. Proposals received after specified date and time will be considered late in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(f). Interested Vendors can submit clarifying questions to AFLCMC by 25 October 2024. AFLCMC will publish all received questions and AFLCMC’s responses (anticipated 1 November 2024) prior to the Proposal submission date. All submissions (questions and proposals) shall be made to the designated Submission POCs below.
Submission POC: White Papers must be submitted via email to the Contracting Points of Contact (POCs):
Contracting Officer Name: Neal Duiker
Email: neal.duiker@us.af.mil
Contract Specialist Name: Cameron Hunter
Email: cameron.hunter.5@us.af.mil
FULL TEXT – CALL 6
( Project Hydra)
Overview
This Commercial Services Opening (CSO) Call is intended to be as streamlined as possible to allow for the exploration of modern solutions to support a variety of critical national security systems. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) invites vendors to submit innovative and novel technical solutions which address all aspects of Digital Infrastructure (DI), focusing on the user story focus areas below. This requires delivering an enduring, secure, robust, efficient, responsive, agile, elastic and extensible DI solution spanning all classification levels.
This AFLCMC project operates in high classification environments; specifically this project requires vendors cleared to Secret, Top Secret including (collateral, Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI), and Special Access Program(SAP)). To be eligible for any contract/instrument award, vendors must be cleared to work, or have the ability to be cleared to work, in all highly classified environments at the time of proposal submission. If vendor intends to perform classified work at their facility (or subcontractor or sub-awardee’s facility), they will need to provide a Facility Accreditation Letter (FAL) for each facility to the Contracting Officer/Agreements Officer by no later than (NLT) contract award (anticipated December 2024/January 2025).
This CSO Call may result in the award of a FAR-based contract, an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) under 10 USC 4021, or an Other Transaction for Prototype Project pursuant to 10 USC 4022. AFLCMC intends to follow the processes identified in the Data Operations CSO unless otherwise noted or annotated in this Call. AFLCMC is not obligated to make any awards as a result of this Call and all awards are explicitly subject to the availability of funds and successful negotiations. The Government is not responsible for any monies expended by any vendor prior to the issuance of any awarded contract/agreement.
AFLCMC reserves the right to modify the solicitation requirements of this CSO Call at its’ sole discretion.
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Digital Infrastructure (DI) Technology Focus Areas Application Development + application refactoring for cloud deployment, Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Development (CD) software pipeline, Existing capability refactoring/integration for Application Programming Interface (API) microservice architecture, Cloud Native Design, and Zero-Trust Architecture
General Information: AFLCMC designed an Azure cloud-based software DevSecOps environment supporting multiple USAF programs (hereafter referred to as Crucible). The Crucible environment contains cloud resources at the IL5 (Controlled Unclassified Information), IL6 (Secret) and IL6+ (Secret Special Access Program) classifications. Current and legacy software was not developed for this new cloud architecture approach. Existing software development efforts will require a shift in architecture and implementation, to optimally utilize Crucible and the benefits a hybrid-cloud architecture has to offer. AFLCMC is desiring to leverage a hybrid-cloud model in future software development with an emphasis on containerized web applications that provide Single-Sign On for users across a suite of software. The hyperscale initiative, or Hydra, is an effort to assess existing software products and execute the necessary refactorization work to achieve AFLCMCs new approach, while maintaining the core functionality of the software. Many of the software applications being targeted for this effort require the ability to be instantiated on premises in a hybrid-cloud fashion should the edge lose hyper-scale connectivity. AFLCMC currently has multiple software applications that have been identified as in need of the hyperscale initiative today with plans to transition more applications over the next few years. Software products range from complex, sophisticated software to simple. AFLCMC’s singular requirement is divided into three separate requirements: Software Assessment, Software Refactor, and Software Integration and Support. AFLCMC intends that any awarded vendor would be continuously delivered new applications for analysis and possible refactoring during the PoP. Each new application will be its own procurement for the purposes of billing and personnel management.
1. Software Assessment Requirements
- Scope
The vendor is expected to provide a comprehensive cloud software assessment to determine the government cloud deployment viability and cloud refactor potential of government-provided software. The assessment should focus on transitioning software to containerized web-based applications that leverage SSO services for end users. As part of the proposal, the vendor should provide a repeatable cloud software assessment framework that may include documentation, tooling, and deployment of tooling in the government cloud environment. Vendors should assume that the USG will provide source code and accompanying documentation that the USG has in its possession as GFE. Using this source code and accompanying documentation, the vendor shall use their cloud software assessment framework to analyze the software and produce a software assessment that addresses at a minimum:
- Re-use of existing code for both business logic and application logic
- Standardized software complexity metrics including lines of code and cyclomatic complexity
- Software changes to enable optimal hyperscale utilization such as new APIs, software design patterns, and containerization
- Software changes to convert client-side applications to web-based applications leveraging SSO.
- Re-work necessary to implement recommended software changes
- Recommendations for cloud services to enable the hyperscale initiative that do not currently exist in government environment
- Incorporation of additional government requested APIs to the software provided as GFI
- An itemized price guide encompassing follow-on software refactor work
Depending on the application’s use, the USG may provide additional scope to the hybrid cloud deployment requirements. As such, the cloud assessment framework should be customizable to include the following deployment scenarios:
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- Hyperscale enclave deployment
- Hybrid hyperscale-edge deployment
- Edge Node deployment
2. Software Refactor Requirements
- Scope
Following the comprehensive software assessment, the USG will decide whether to implement the Software Assessment recommendations for software refactor. AFLCMC is utilizing Azure cloud for its cloud solutions. Therefore, AFLCMC requires vendors to identify previous experience developing applications in and for Azure environments. Additionally, it is required that the vendor have the credentialed personnel to operate in a TS//SAR environment at award.
The vendor is expected to continuously deliver and deploy the software refactor artifacts within the USG’s Azure cloud environment on a two-week sprint cadence. As such, the vendor is required to provide tooling and environment requirements to the USG. The vendor will work with the USG to find suitable replacement options if desired tooling is not deployable in the environment. The vendor is expected to host weekly meetings with the USG to provide updates, feedback, and blockers for the software refactor. The vendor shall work with USG appointed integration partners for validating software meets functional and non-functional requirements including but limited to operability, security, and availability. All source code to build, and automatically configure and deploy the application, software documentation and all other software artifacts will be delivered to and remain within the government cloud environment. All data rights restrictions, if any, shall be known prior to work beginning in the cloud environment. Source code documentation should include at a minimum:
- Code description documentation in Markdown or similar format
- Software models detailing software paradigms, defined functions, defined services, etc.
- Implementation and deployment documentation including how-to manuals and troubleshooting guide
- Machine readable API documentation
As part of this service, the vendor is expected to provide a standardized software paradigm for hybrid cloud deployment. This includes providing a repeatable, standardized software model that can be applied to new applications to create a cohesive ecosystem for current and future development efforts.
3. Software Integration and Technical Support
- Scope
Upon delivery of the refactored application and documentation, AFLCMC may need the expertise of the vendor to re-integrate the new application into existing systems. As such, AFLCMC requires the availability of personnel to support integration of the new application. This support may include, but is not limited to:
- Working with AFLCMC system integrators to deploy the new application in existing systems
- Attend technical interchange meetings
- Present demonstrations of the refactored software application
- Provide support for software test and validation activities performed by AFLCMC system integrators
Additionally, the vendor is expected to provide technical support for any issue related to the software application deployment or which impacts the application’s use that, based on government assessment, is directly attributable to the software application for the first year after its initial deployment into the system. The vendor shall provide a support personnel management plan for integration and technical support efforts that cover the scope described above to include personnel duty descriptions.
Anticipated Delivery Date: 5 years of ordering, each software application will have individual delivery requirements
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Call Description, Instructions to Vendors, and Evaluation Criteria: Specific instructions and evaluation criteria can be found in the attached Call document.
This call will be a one-step call. Proposals may be submitted at any time prior to the due date and time specified in this Call. Vendors are responsible for monitoring SAM.gov for any amendments to this Call that may have updated information. Proposals will be evaluated against the criteria detailed below.
Proposal due date and time is 18 November 2024 at 1700 ET. AFLCMC will review Proposals based on the below evaluation criteria. Interested Vendors can submit clarifying questions to AFLCMC by 25 October 2024. AFLCMC will publish all received questions and AFLCMC’s responses (anticipated 1 November 2024) prior to the Proposal submission date. AFLCMC, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to request a presentation or discussion with Government personnel about the submitted Proposal.
Overarching Instructions: AFLCMC reserves the right to award to multiple different vendors, a single vendor, or not make any award at all. As a reminder, responses must be UNCLASSIFIED. AFLCMC will not accept classified proposals under this Call.
PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS: Attached is the required structure and required content for proposal submission for this Call. Vendor responses shall be submitted to Mr. Neal Duiker, at neal.duiker@us.af.mil & Mr. Cameron Hunter, at cameron.hunter.5@us.af.mil, NLT 1700 (ET) on 18 November 2024 at 1700 ET via email in either PDF, Word, or PowerPoint file types and shall include the following:
The Government will select proposals for award that best meet the Government’s needs. Selected offerors will be invited to enter into negotiations for either a fixed price FAR 12 contract or an OTA. The selection of one or more sources for award will be based on the Government’s evaluation and funding availability. NOTE: The Government reserves the right to award all, some, one, or none of the proposals.
DEBRIEFINGS:
For unsuccessful vendors, the Government will conduct written, post-award debriefings upon request in accordance with FAR 52.212-1(l) and this Call. Debriefings will address the evaluation factors contained herein only. Debriefings will not include a comparison of submissions.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
This CSO Call may result in the award of a FAR Part 12 contract or an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) under 10 USC 4022 (also referred to as an Other Transition for Prototype or OTP). The awarded contract type shall be either Firm Fixed Price (FFP) or Fixed Price Incentive (FPI) in accordance with FAR Part 12.
The Government will be the sole decision authority on whether to pursue a FAR Part 12 Contract, an OTA, or no award at all. The Government reserves the right to award some, all, or none of the proposals received in response to this Call based on mission requirements and the availability of Government funds. The Contracting/Agreements Officer reserves the right to negotiate directly with the vendor on the terms and conditions prior to execution of the resulting contract/agreement on behalf of the Government. Be advised that only a Contracting/Agreements Officer has the authority to enter into, or modify, a binding contract/agreement on behalf of the United States Government.
You may be ineligible for award if all requirements of this solicitation are not met in the Proposal (when applicable).
