High Performance Computing & Communications (HPCC), Research and Development (R&D) FINAL   3

NOTICE OF AMENDMENT 0002 RELEASE - JANUARY 12, 2018.
The proposal submission due date is hereby extended to January 12, 2018 at 11:59PM EST.
NOTICE OF AMENDMENT 0001 RELEASE - DECEMBER 13, 2017.
The Government appreciates the Industry's continued interest in this procurement, and the comments and suggestions were carefully reviewed and were taken into consideration. The Government response to Industry questions/comments received through December 8, 2017 are hereby posted to this solicitation notice. In light of this, Amendment 0001 is hereby issued December 13, 2017 which incorporates revisions to the RFP in response to the questions/comments. Furthermore, Amendment 0001 also extends the proposal due date to January 12, 2018 at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
NOTICE OF FINAL SOLICITATION RELEASE - NOVEMBER 16, 2017. The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Strategic Sourcing Acquisition Division (SSAD), located in Silver Spring, MD, has a requirement for systems integration services in support of NOAA's Research and Development High Performance Computing and Communications (R&D HPCC) infrastructure. The Final Request for Proposal (RFP) is hereby issued on November 16, 2017. This RFP is issued as a full-and-open competition under FAR Part 15 procedures. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541512 - Computer Systems Design Services, with a corresponding Small Business size standard of $27.5 million. The Product Service Code (PSC) for this acquisition is D318 - IT and Telecom - Integrated Hardware/Software/Services Solutions, Predominately Services. (See Notes #1 and #2 below for background details regarding the current contract and acquisition history.) Interested parties shall submit all questions regarding this solicitation in writing using Attachment J-8 RFP Question and Comment Template, by electronic mail to the Contract Specialists, Mr. Michael Iszard at Michael.Iszard@noaa.gov, and Mr. Berchan Torrejon at Berchan.Torrejon@noaa.gov, and copy the Contracting Officer, Mr. McKenzy Hunter, at McKenzy.Hunter@noaa.gov. All questions or comments submitted shall include the solicitation number in the subject line. Questions shall be submitted NLT 5:00PM EST on December 1, 2017. Please be advised that questions that do not have the appropriate reference information may not be answered. The Government will attempt, but does not guarantee, that it will answer questions submitted after the date specified above. The Government anticipates awarding the resultant contract on the basis of initial offers. The Government will not provide paper copies of the solicitation or any associated documents. Solicitation documents will be made available only through https://www.fbo.gov IAW FAR 5.102. Interested vendors are responsible for visiting https://www.fbo.gov periodically for any changes or updates to this solicitation. All prospective offerors must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) in order to be eligible for award (https://www.sam.gov) IAW FAR 4.1102. -Note #1: NOAA currently receives R&D HPCC systems integration services through Contract No. DG1330-10-CQ-0014 with CSRA, LLC. The current contract period expires May 06, 2018, with an additional one (1) year transition option available for support from May 07, 2018 - May 06, 2019. Similar to the anticipated follow-on contract, the current contract is a single-award IDIQ with FFP and T&M task and delivery ordering capabilities. -Note #2: In Spring 2016, on the basis of Market Research, NOAA engaged vendors in the HPC industry to obtain feedback concerning the prospect of combining NOAA's follow-on R&D HPCC and operational HPCC acquisition requirements into a single contracting vehicle. Historically, NOAA has issued separate contracts to support these programs. NOAA hereby advises that a combined acquisition approach, wherein the R&D HPCC Program and the Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) Program are supported through one (1) contract vehicle, WILL NOT be pursued at this time. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, the R&D HPCC Program and the WCOSS Program will be supported via separate contracts for their respective follow-on efforts.