This is a Sources Sought Notice ONLY. Requests for copies of a solicitation will not receive a response.

This Notice is for planning purposes only and shall not be misunderstood as a Request for Proposal or a Request for Quotation or as an obligation on the part of The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) for conducting a follow-on acquisition. NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice, or otherwise pay for the information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST use of such information. NIST recognizes that proprietary data may be part of this effort. If so, respondents are responsible for identifying proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted / non-proprietary information. In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper.

NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME.

Section I - Sources Sought Information:
1. Synopsis: The NIST seeks information on commercial vendors that are capable of providing a Cloud Orchestration solution to support the continuing focus and implementation of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms and process automations across the NIST organization. The Cloud Orchestration solution must deliver cloud management capabilities to operate a private, public, and hybrid cloud through a single interface. Information gathered from this notice will be utilized by NIST to determine a procurement approach in support of this requirement.

2. Background: NIST has initiated an IaaS project to provide the ability to host applications, servers, and storage space and provide access to these resources on demand in a cloud environment. The project objectives include:
• Identify the challenges presented in implementing/offering private, public,
  and hybrid cloud-based IaaS capabilities in NIST's environment
• Identify chargeback, network, and security strategies for an on-demand self-
  service infrastructure
• Identify cloud platform virtualization layer requirements
• Identify cloud management layer requirements
• Identify the challenges in migrating virtual servers among on premise and
  off-premise IaaS providers
• Understand interoperability between NIST Private cloud and commercial cloud
• Increase expertise in Cloud Computing deployment models

3. Statement of Requirements: Below is a listing of NIST Cloud Orchestration requirements. NIST seeks to obtain specific information in writing from Cloud Orchestration vendors on their current capabilities to provide Cloud Orchestration functionality in support of the following requirements.

I. System Base Functionality:
a) The system shall deliver the ability for end-users to order compute and 
    storage assets in a self-service fashion, thereby initiating automated
    workflows for IT service fulfillment.
b) The system shall have the ability to supply the service catalog, order 
    management, orchestration, and provisioning functions.
c) The system shall provide a centralized management console.
d) The system shall enable lifecycle management for IT assets provisioned 
    through the system.
e) The system shall provide self-service provisioning from various cloud 
    platforms. 
f) The system shall provide the ability to create and schedule customized
    reports, and develop customized dashboards that are automatically
    updated with real time system data.
g) The system shall provide technical and functional performance criteria of 
    Section 508 compliance.

II. Cloud Integration:
a) The solution shall integrate with various platforms and eliminate the need  
    for multiple interfaces to manage cloud environments.
b) The system shall provide for the ability to initiate, execute, and manage
    automated procedures, actions and scripts on other IT systems interfaced.
c) The system shall provide out-of-box support for Amazon Web Services such
    as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3).
d) The system shall provide out-of-box support for ESX/VMware environments
    such as Vcloud Suite.
e) The system shall integrate seamlessly with NIST's existing ServiceNow IT
    investment for service management.

III. Custom Workflow:
a) The system shall provide for the ability to develop and configure custom
    workflows and processes.
b) The system shall provide the capabilities for reports, dashboards, policies,
    approval workflows, as well as alerts.
c) The system shall implement workflows, user roles, security permissions,
    business rules / conditions, Service Level Agreement tracking, approvals,
    scheduled scripts, and email notifications for the Change, Incident, and
    Service Request processes.
d) The system shall provide the ability to fully automate workflows.

IV. Financial Management:
a) The system shall provide business processes automation for financial
    management.
b) The system shall provide the ability to configure cost allocation for
    chargeback and showback.
c) The system shall implement workflows, system interfaces, data
    imports/exports, approvals, and email notifications for the billing
    components, which provide internal billing for shopping cart and charge  
    back items; the system shall also interface with the enterprise financial and
    billing system.
d) The system shall provide the ability to charge by disk capacity used, CPU
    consumed, or network bandwidth used. System should offer charges hourly,
    weekly, monthly, or annual with detailed usage tracking.

V. Security:
a) The vendor shall provide a system interface and authentication mechanism
    compatible with the existing NIST Active Directory and SAML-based systems.
b) The vendor shall provide a system interface with the existing cloud based
    (Microsoft Office 365) Email system to provide for both SMTP (outgoing)
    and POP (incoming) email.
c) The system shall provide the ability to interface with other systems by way
    of, but not limited to: Web Services, SOAP, SAML, LDAP, Excel, CSV, and
    Application APIs.
d) The system shall provide role-based access controls for automated
    provisioning and lifecycle management of VMs.

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NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, and small businesses. NIST has not made a determination whether this will be a small business set-aside. The small business size standard for the applicable NAICS code of 511210 - Software Publishers - is $25.0 Million. Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.

After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a Purchase Order. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, then any competitive procurement that results from this notice shall be conducted as a small business set-aside.

Companies that can provide such services are requested to email a written response (see Section II - Responses defined below) describing their abilities to [email protected] and [email protected] no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should include achievable specifications and any other information relevant to your product or capabilities.

Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:
1. Name of the company that manufactures the system components for which
    specifications are provided.
2. Name of company(ies) that are authorized to sell the system components, 
    their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone 
    number, fax number and email address).
3. A description of prior experience providing a Cloud Orchestration solution to 
    a Federal, State or Local Government customer(s).
4. A typical pricing structure to include any licenses, modules, or other options 
    required to provide the requirements for 1 base year, and 2 option years,
    and whether the pricing structure and information may be used as a quote.
5. Estimated timeframe for installation, training, and fully operation status.
6. Indication of whether products/services for which specifications are provided
    are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts
    and, if so, the GSA FSS contract number(s).
7. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the
    Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and
    finalizing its market research.

Section II - Response Instructions:
Each vendor shall submit written responses within the following framework:

1. Vendor profile/background information (Include DUNS number)
a) Company Background
   i. Date incorporated, Size, Core Competencies
   ii. Litigations (pending or active)
2. Key Arrangements/Strategies/Prior Experience (Elaborate on each)
a) Cloud Orchestration Teaming Arrangements/Agreements (sub-contractor
    agreements to be utilized for a possible future NIST RFP submission)
b) Prior project methodologies successfully utilized for supporting an agile,
    ‘out of the box', implementation approach.
c) Prior experience implementing Cloud Orchestration solutions that integrates 
   with existing legacy-based systems. Highlight specific experience working
   within Federal Government space or State or local governments. Please
   provide reference contact details.
d) Training strategies with limited travel funds to successfully support a roll-out
    of the Cloud Orchestration solution.

Responses are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages. The responses must be in MS Word format. Pages shall be 8½-inch x 11-inch, using Times New Roman 11 Point Font. Each page shall have adequate margins on each side (at least one inch) of the page. Header/footer information (which does not include any information to be evaluated) may be included in the 1" margin space.
Please send responses via email to [email protected] and [email protected].