SPECIAL NOTICE
D -- DOC NOAA NCEP Operational (OPS) High Performance Computing Systems (HPCS) REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
- Notice Date
- 3/2/2010
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office, SSMC4 - Room 7601/OFA61, 1305 East West Highway, 7th Floor, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20910
- ZIP Code
- 20910
- Solicitation Number
- NCEP-OPS2010
- Archive Date
- 4/16/2010
- Point of Contact
- Richard Parkerson, Phone: 301-713-0833 x204, Michael Blumenfeld, Phone: 301-713-0820 x183
- E-Mail Address
-
richard.parkerson@noaa.gov, michael.blumenfeld@noaa.gov
(richard.parkerson@noaa.gov, michael.blumenfeld@noaa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) intends to acquire the processing capability, storage, networking, software, services and facility housing/services in support of operational activities associated with the Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS) program. The Government intends to negotiate on a competitive basis to acquire two years of service, 01 October 2011 through 30 September 2013, of a total HPC solution that delivers equal or better performance than the existing high performance computing (HPC) system being leased by DOC/NOAA/NWS/NCEP under contract DG133W-02-CN-0013 with IBM Corporation. The purpose of the bridge contract is to acquire a bridge HPC system that allows the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) to support its operational mission for two years while it prepares for a transition to a new HPC system under a new, longer-term contract. The solicitation for services under the longer-term contract is anticipated to be released in FY2010, concurrently with the solicitation for services under the bridge contract. The intent is to run parallel operations of the bridge HPC system concurrently with the new HPC system to allow a smooth transition between systems. The Government may extend the bridge contract solely at its discretion. The Government desires to include small business at either the prime or subcontract level. A description of the current system and the required performance metrics for the bridge system follows. This synopsis serves to notify the public of the proposed contract action. The HPC system currently utilized by NCEP directly supports NOAA's strategic goals in Climate, Weather and Water by enabling its research into the physical processes governing the Earth's weather, climate and ocean. The existing HPC system was designed by IBM to provide a balanced supercomputing environment that includes not only large-scale computing but disk storage and tape storage associated with both operational clusters and infrastructure to access supercomputing and tape archive resources associated with a Research and Development (R&D) contract. The current NCEP HPC system consists of two operational supercomputer clusters, Stratus and Cirrus, with identical configurations and a test and evaluation system, Altus. Each operational system is an IBM Power6-based system containing 156 nodes (32 processors per node), 4 GB memory/physical processor and IBM's AIX-based high performance computing parallel environment including GPFS. Each system is capable of delivering 73TF as measured by Linpack benchmark code. Each operational system employs an IBM TS3500 tape library for user data via TSM archival software and network. Each operational system supports a 320 TB disk storage subsystem providing sustained performance of not less than 9 GB/sec for write and 10 GB/s for read. The test and evaluation system is configured using components (hardware and software) identical to the operational systems and consists of a 6-node Power 6 cluster with a 6 TB disk subsystem. IBM provides 7X24X365 system administration and other system related support services via a team comprised of four system administrators servicing Gaithersburg, one system administrator located in Fairmont, WV, one system administrator/software engineer troubleshooting recalcitrant applications/application optimization and one quarter-time software engineer dealing with optimization and meteorological model design. The operational systems are located in IBM's Business Continuity and Recovery Services facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland and in NASA's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) facility in Fairmont, West Virginia. The test and evaluation system is located in Gaithersburg. IBM provides its facility as part of its total solution, including all utilities, Uninterruptible Power Supply, backup electrical generators (sufficient to provide "N+1" redundancy), all associated facility infrastructure (such as electrical switch gear, water-cooling plumbing, etc.) and 7X24X365 support sufficient to meet NCEP's on-time requirements. Gaithersburg lies within the Washington, DC metro area Federal communications cloud, thereby lowering communications costs. The bridge HPC system must provide a continuation of operational performance at least equivalent to Stratus and Cirrus, including support of the IBM GPFS parallel filesystem. It must meet NCEP's strict dependability guaranteed performance of 99% operational use time, 99% on-time product generation and system switch (between Stratus and Cirrus or vice versa) of 30 minutes. The bridge system must also provide an equivalent test and evaluation system. The HPC systems must be fully supported by system administrators and maintenance provided on a 7X24x365 basis. The HPC system must continue to support full integration with the existing R&D computing and HPSS tape archival system. In addition, the HPC system must be integrated into NCEP's local area network and NCEP's wide area network, supported by industry standard communications hardware/software. Both Verizon and Quest have points of presence within the Gaithersburg and Fairmont facilities. The estimated budget for this requirement is $39 Million. NOAA anticipates leasing the hardware, software and services to include maintenance (7X24X365) under fixed-price terms. Vendors who believe they can satisfy the Government's requirements are invited to submit an affirmative response. To be considered an affirmative response, vendors must submit written data and documentation which demonstrates an ability to furnish a production-ready system. A production-ready system is one capable of meeting the previously cited requirements and a facility to support that system. Seamless integration of the HPC system into the existing infrastructure is required. Of particular concern to the Government is accomplishment of system transition and integration with zero disruption of NCEP's operational Weather and Climate forecasting activities. Vendors must include in their response an explanation, in detail, of its plan to transition, implement and manage integration with the existing HPC and communications systems. All responsible sources must submit a written narrative statement of capability including detailed technical information and other technical literature sufficient to permit agency analysis in order to determine a bona fide capability to meet the requirements. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement for competition based upon responses to this notice is solely within its discretion. Responses must be submitted by e-mail to the following address: richard.parkerson@noaa.gov with RFI-NCEP2010 noted in the subject header. Affirmative responses must be received by 12:00PM EST on 01 April 2010. This synopsis is for a Request for Information only and does not constitute a commitment on the part of the Government to purchase or acquire systems or services. The Government will not pay for data or time expended on this RFI and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a request for proposal or award a contract as a result of this request. This RFI is for informational and planning purposes only.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NOAA/AGAMD/NCEP-OPS2010/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Department Of Commerce, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Camp Springs, Maryland 20746, Camp Springs, Maryland, 20746, United States
- Zip Code: 20746
- Zip Code: 20746
- Record
- SN02080084-W 20100304/100302234549-7eed7200fd815f89b9abffc9efb37b0d (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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