Federal Aviation Administration Colocation Services

Description

Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source This is a pre-award public announcement for the purpose of notifying industry of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) William J. Hughes Technical Center for Advanced Aerospace�s, intent to issue a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract on a sole source basis to Equinix, Inc. for the continuation of essential colocation and connectivity services. This announcement is issued in accordance with Acquisition Management System (AMS) Policy 3.2.2.4, Single Source Selection, and AMS Guidance T3.2.2.4, Single Source. The NAICS for this service is 518210 Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services. The Contractor shall provide all labor, material and facilities for the Data Center Colocation and Interconnection Services to support the FAA Office of Information & Technology (AIT) Cloud & Hosting Services Division in delivering secure, reliable, and efficient computing infrastructure solutions to meet FAA�s safety of civil aviation mission. The FAA currently obtains colocation services under the FAA Cloud Services (FCS) Contract, DTFACT-15-D-00003 awarded to General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. (GDIT). GDIT sub-contracts out the colocation services to Equinix, Inc. These colocation services are a pivotal element of FAA�s telecommunications infrastructure for the delivery of cloud services to all lines of business and staff offices within the FAA. They enable robust connectivity to cloud platforms and support a wide array of mission essential FAA applications crucial for aviation operations and safety. The FAA maintains a significant infrastructure presence at the current colocation facility provided by Equinix, Inc. Transitioning to a new provider would require the procurement and installation of new FAA Telecommunication Infrastructure (FTI) lines. This process involves several key steps, including planning and design, equipment procurement, physical installation, testing, and validation, and requires collaboration with multiple teams, most notably the FAA Enterprise Network Systems (FENS) team, to ensure seamless integration and functionality. Overall, this transition demands substantial time and financial investment to achieve successful implementation and to maintain operational continuity. The relocation of systems would require decommissioning, moving, and rebuilding application infrastructure (e.g, racks, servers, storage devices, and switches), leading to potential application downtimes and production outages, thereby risking aviation operations and safety. Transitioning to a new colocation facility would require a Security Authorization prior to implementing full-scale production. Additionally, a Security Risk Assessment (SRA) must be conducted for each business application hosted on the infrastructure within the current colocation facility before transitioning to the new colocation facility. Security Authorization and SRA processes are lengthy and costly, adding layers of complexity, time, risk, and administrative burden. The FAA intends to migrate all colocation customers to the cloud within the five (5) year period of performance of this procurement. Therefore, no additional follow-on contract for colocation support is anticipated beyond this timeframe. Based on this information, it is in the FAA�s best interest to issue a contract on a sole source basis to Equinix, Inc. THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals nor does it restrict the FAA from an ultimate acquisition approach; however, the FAA will consider all responses received to this notice. A determination by the FAA not to compete this requirement is solely within the discretion of the FAA. This notice should not be construed as a commitment by the FAA for any purpose. All information is to be submitted at no cost or obligation to the FAA. The FAA reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any input as a result of this market survey. The FAA is not obligated to notify respondents of the results of this survey. If a formal solicitation is generated at a later date, a solicitation notice will be published.