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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF MAY 14, 2004 FBO #0900
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- RFI Data Services Software Supporting NCES Core Services

Notice Date

5/12/2004
 

Notice Type

Solicitation Notice
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Defense Information Systems Agency, Acquisition Directorate, DITCO-Scott, 2300 East Drive Bldg 3600, Scott AFB, IL, 62225-5406
 

ZIP Code

62225-5406
 

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-RFIDATASVCS1
 

Response Due

6/18/2004
 

Archive Date

7/3/2004
 

Point of Contact

Linda Goff, Contract Specialist, Phone 618-229-9486, Fax 618-229-9440, - Linda Goff, Contract Specialist, Phone 618-229-9486, Fax 618-229-9440,
 

E-Mail Address

goffl@scott.disa.mil, goffl@scott.disa.mil
 

Description

This is a request for information (RFI). The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is considering the introduction of state of the art Data Services into the Global Information Grid Services (GIG) Core Enterprise Services (CES) Architecture. DISA is seeking information from industry on state of the art Data Services Technologies architectures, and products that supports the Mediation, Discovery, Publication, Subscription, Content Management, Security, Messaging, Applications, User Assistant, Storage, Collaboration, and Enterprise Services Management CES to ensure that it has considered all available commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products that provide this capability. This RFI includes but is not limited to software specifications to include: data management tools, interface software, data catalogs, formatting tools, data quality control, metadata management, translation and correlation capabilities, data rates, throughput. All manufacturers and suppliers Data Services technology are offered this opportunity to show how to best employ their software in the GIG Infrastructure. THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS RFI OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR INFORMATION RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFI. However, this RFI will be the basis for collecting information on products available, and as a result of information received, the government may enter into Product Loan Agreements for trial and testing of products identified. This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Information provided in response to this RFI will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for determining how to proceed in the acquisition process for the Data Technology products. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. 1.INTRODUCTION: Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) provides the foundation for network-centric operations by creating a set of nine core services for joint and service systems to use. NCES is part of the larger Global Information Grid (GIG) Enterprise Services (ES). The GIG ES supports the entire Department of Defense Information Technology (IT) requirements, including the Business and War-fighting domains, as well as interfaces with the national Intelligence Community (IC) domain. As the enterprise services component of the Global Information Grid, NCES is the infrastructure on which Department of Defense (DoD) computer applications (e.g., C2, Combat Support, and Medical) rely. This new environment must: (1) Support posting data to common storage spaces as early as possible, (2) Alert edge users to changes in relevant DoD information or time-critical events affecting their survival or threatening their mission, (3) Provide users, down to the last tactical mile, with the capability to pull whatever they want, whenever they want, from wherever they are and limited only by the commanders information management policy, (4) Ensure information assurance (IA)/security, (5) Support interoperability among allies, coalition, and multinational partners. NCES relies upon the GIG transport services and tactical communications systems for exchange of information with the Core Enterprise Services (CES) and the Community of Interest (CoI) capabilities. Data Services is an inherent component of NCES and the CES are dependent upon a robust set these services to support the domains and CoIs. The NCES facilitates data sharing and reuse of the many redundant, dissimilar, but overlapping, data stores used in legacy applications by making use of a set of standard NCES compliant data services engineered from components that blend multiple data technologies. To do this, the data engineering team provides architectural definition of data services that support discovery, data access, mediation, collaboration, security, content management and ESM services. NCES defines the data management services, support tools, engineering support services, and legacy data migration guidance for system developers and administrators and end user applications on the network that will enable both horizontal fusion and vertical integration of data sources. These tools and services allow easy organization and publication of existing data components to encourage reuse and migration away from application-centric data stores to NCES data management services. These services will provide the ability to post information to public space, advertise requirements, advertise service offerings, publish content in easily accessible form, precision discovery of needed information efficient pull and reliable subscription, alerts, tip-offs, notifications of significant events collaboration among geographically dispersed team(s) asynchronous (intermittently connected) operations, expanded messaging capability, and comprehensive help. Under the NCES, application developers use common data-related services rather than re-implementing them for each application. NCES shall use COTS products, relational database management systems (RDBMS), message-oriented middle-ware, and GOTS products (metadata registries) to provide mainline data services. NCES emphasizes coordinated management of the sharable data structures and semantics employed within heterogeneous data product frameworks. The purpose of this RFI is to perform market research. Information from industry is required for planning purposes about COTS software products that enable the government to define a comprehensive set of data service requirements. The requirements shall be used to formulate a strategy for development and integration of the CES defined in NCES. Since NCES is a data centric program, the government requests information concerning Data Services Technologies software for the Mediation, Discovery, Publication, Subscription, Content Management, Security, Messaging, Applications, User Assistant, Storage, Collaboration, and Enterprise Services Management services of the GIG. These services are defines as follows: (a) Enterprise System Management- The set of services that enables life cycle management of the information environment and that supports all Network Operations (NetOps) activities necessary to operationally manage information flows. Provides end-to-end GIG performance monitoring, configuration management, event correlation and mission impact assessment, and problem detection/resolution as well as enterprise resource accounting and addressing (e.g., for users, systems, devices). Web Services Management (WSM) provides the end-to-end management of web services within the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). WSM provides robust monitoring of web services enabling a fault tolerant environment through dynamic fail over, load balancing, and metric collection and visualization. (b) Messaging- Services that support synchronous and asynchronous information exchange. Selected capabilities to exchange information among users or applications on the enterprise infrastructure (e.g., Email, DMS, VMF, USMTF, TADIL, OTH, Message Oriented Middleware, AOL instant messenger, Wireless Services, Alert Services). (c) Discovery- The set of services that enables the formulation and execution of processes to locate data assets (e.g., files, databases, services, directories, web pages, streams) by exploiting metadata descriptions stored in and or generated by IT repositories (e.g., directories, registries, catalogs, repositories, other shared metadata storage). (d) Mediation- Services that help broker, translate, aggregate, fuse or integrate data, providing capabilities that enable transformation processing (translation, aggregation, integration), situational awareness support (correlation and fusion), negotiation (brokering, trading, and auctioning services) and publishing. (e) Collaboration- The set of services that allows users to work together and jointly use selected capabilities on the network (i.e., chat, online meetings, work group software etc.) Collaboration services include synchronous and asynchronous modes enabling ad hoc interaction between disparate participants. Synchronous services are characterized by real-time point-to-point or peer-to-peer interaction between users and systems (i.e. chat, online meetings, etc.). Asynchronous services provide collaborative or shared workspaces that facilitate the interaction between disparate persons or groups (i.e. shared workspace, subscriptions and notifications, discovery, discussion forums, etc.) (f) User Assistant- Automated capabilities that learn and apply user preferences and patterns to assist users to efficiently and effectively utilize GIG resources in the performance of tasks. (g) IA/Security- Capabilities addressing vulnerabilities in networks, computing infrastructure, core services, and/or discreet systems. The set of services that provides Defense in Depth to ensure the integrity and continuity of the information environment and the information it stores, processes, maintains, uses, shares, disseminates, disposes, displays, or transmits. (h) Storage- The set of physical and virtual places available on the network to host data with varying degrees of persistence (e.g., archiving, COOP, content staging) (i) Application- The set of services necessary to provision, host, operate and manage the assured computing environment. 1. Data Services General Information. 1.1 Vendors should provide at a minimum descriptions or products and services that address the following: 1.1.1. Current state of the art data services software in use today. As used here, current refers to software that is installed and operational for at least one customer. 1.1.2. Imminent release data services software (available today, but not necessarily fielded in an operational network to date) 1.1.3. Announced products and other forward-looking statements or documents. 1.1.4. DISA is interested in state of the art Data Services software that are able to support one or more of the development and operational components of NCES. NCES core services are Mediation, Discovery, Publication, Subscription, Content Management, Security, Messaging, Applications, User Assistant, Storage, Collaboration, and Enterprise Services Management. 2. Capabilities. 2.1 Within the context of the services in Section 1 describe how the Enterprise Data Services Software can provide the following capabilities to the NCES: -Support multiple heterogeneous sources of data -Provides scalability, reliability, resilience, fault tolerance, speed, etc. -Enables publish & subscribe communications -Enables generic and standardized data distribution services -Relates to architectural initiatives (e.g., shared software services, Web, XML, etc.) -Operates in a network-centric architecture -Supports ?event mode? capability -Stays current with technology 3. Questions. Responses to the following questions should address the Data Services Software. 3.1. What is the technology life expectancy of the product/s? 3.2. What is the storage requirements of the product/s? 3.3. What are the metrics of the product/s to include but not be limited to data exchange rates, seek time, mean time between failures, etc.? 3.3. What are the technical specifications, operating parameters, and network design specifications for each product/s. 3.5. What are the configuration options available for each product/s? 3.6. Describe the scalability of each product/s to include but not be limited to hardware and software upgrades. 3.7. What is the product/s and services corporate support policy? 3.8. What data types does each product/s support? 3.9. What interfaces and protocols does each product/s support? a. Ethernet (10/100/1000) b. SONET (T1 through OC(n)(c)) c. ATM d. IP e. OIF-UNI f. NNI g. MPLS/GMPLS h. TL1 i. SNMPv1 j. SNMPv3 k. Others as available 3.10. What is the corporate 5-year evolution strategy for each product/s and services? 3.11. What ancillary devices (interfaces, HVAC) are necessary for a fully capable deployment of the product/s and services? 3.12. What security and information assurance capabilities will be provided to ensure secure and reliable management and operation of the product/s and services? 3.13. What are the costs associated with the product/s? 3.14. What software licenses are necessary for software product/s and what features do each provide? 3.15. Are enterprise wide software licenses available? 3.16. What integration engineering services are included with the product/s 3.17. What additional integration engineering product/s and services are provided and at what cost? 3.18. What are the costs or rates for all product/s including integration engineering discussed in your response to this RFI? 4. CONTACT/ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION. 4.1. Please submit one soft copy via E-MAIL in MS Word format, to goffl@scott.disa.mil. Do not send hard copy. Please provide Website address (URL) if available. 4.2. In order to be evaluated and considered in time to influence a potential near-term acquisition effort, submission should occur NLT 5:00 (central) on 18 June 2004. 4.3. The Government may request additional information or discuss information received in responses to this RFI with individual responders. DISA may consider meeting individually with interested respondents. DISA will contact vendors if they require additional information or if they wish to arrange a presentation and/or discussion. Such meetings shall be limited to one hour.
 

Place of Performance

Address: Various/Falls Church/VA

Zip Code: 22041

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00584335-W 20040514/040512211548 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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