FEMA Plans to Modernize its IT Solutions

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - December 29, 2016) - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Thursday, December 29, 2016 extended the length of time contractors have to respond to a previously released sources sought notice for information related to modernizing its cloud infrastructure adoption and implementation.

Specifically, FEMA wants contractors to weigh in on the following areas:

• Automatically scalable cloud infrastructure based on disaster activity
• Estimate cost of initial acquisition and maintenance of a scalable cloud environment
• Exit strategy to move the program from one cloud environment to a new cloud environment
• Government-wide contracts or Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) which provide access to Cloud vendors

FEMA invites contractors capable of and interested in providing cloud hosting and management services that may be used as the basis for a future DAIP hosting environment to provide a description of their capabilities as it relates to the following functional and non-functional requirements:

Functional Requirements

• Auto-scaling infrastructure based on utilization and concurrent user demand
• Elastic load balancing
• Rapid production deployment and code management
• Application and software stack
• Infrastructure operations and maintenance that results in 99% up-time even during patches, scheduled/unscheduled down time, etc.
• Analytics that provide SLA metrics and allow for business decisions to be made to enhance web traffic management
• Elastic storage and database
• Technical support for internal and external development and operations teams

Non-Functional Requirements

• Provide hosted or brokered FedRAMP cloud environment
• Support secure data exchanges with internal and external partners that might have public, private, or hybrid cloud environment
• Support open source software for development, deployment, maintenance, and management
  • Support front end web portal application development with real-time and batch data exchange using open source software
  • Support mobile application platforms
  • Run on Linux, Solaris, and Windows
  • FedRAMP Moderate ATO or higher. If you have a Provisional ATO for FedRAMP High, please specify timeline and roadmap to achieve final ATO. If you do not have a Provisional ATO for FedRAMP High but have a roadmap to acquire it, please specify the details of the roadmap.
  • Exit strategy for data and code migration between cloud environments
  • Data stored in cloud environments should be stored and exchanged in open standard, machine-readable formats to ensure compatibility with FEMA's future needs and target enterprise architecture
  • The solution must be able to integrate with FEMA's Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management capabilities to provide PIV-enabled access for Single-Sign On capabilities and services
  • The solution must have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, test the plan regularly, and provide proof of remediation

Along with weighing in on the above information, FEMA requests contractors also provide the following information:

• Company name, address and point-of-contact information for questions on submittal
• A brief description of your company
• Dun & Bradstreet (DUNS) number
• Contact information (address, telephone, e-mail, website address)
• Company's contract vehicles such as GWAC's, IDIQ's, BPA's, or FSS Schedules relevant to cloud services
• Small-business and/or set-aside statues (if applicable)
• Capability Statement of no more than 20 pages
• Cost Estimate

The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541512 -- Computer Systems Design Services with a size standard of $27.5 million; however, FEMA is open to other NAICS suggestions that might be more appropriate.

Responses must be e-mailed to Contracting Officer Frederick Little at Frederick.Little@fema.dhs.gov by no later than January 19, 2017 at 1 p.m. EST.

To receive the contract -- if FEMA ultimately releases a solicitation for the opportunity -- contractors must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) database, and have as part of the Registration all current Representations and Certifications.

US Federal Contractor Registration, the world's largest third-party government registration firm, completes the required Registrations on behalf of its clients. It also makes available information about opportunities like this, as well as training on how to locate, research, and respond to opportunities.

For more information, to get started with a SAM registration, or to learn more about how US Federal Contractor Registration can help your business succeed, call 877-252-2700, ext. 1.

We also make available for our clients and for contracting officers our proprietary Advanced Federal Procurement Data Search (AFPDS). Our Advanced Federal Procurement Data Search (AFPDS) gives you in one place instant bid notifications, bid proposal prospecting, and information about government procurement officers. We make this search tool available to clients, as part of our commitment to helping each and every USFCR client succeed and thrive as a government contractor.

For contracting officers, the AFPDS gives them in one place access to a database of available contractors and also a place to post information about opportunities. Contracting officers get free access to AFPDS. We also provide interested contracting officers a list of contractors who may be able to provide a service and/or product that they need.

To learn more about our AFPDS, call 877-252-2700, ext. 1.