This is a Request for Information (RFI) IAW FAR 15.201(e) Exchanges with Industry. The purpose of this RFI is in support of market research conducted by USAID. All interested parties are encouraged to respond. This is only for information purposes in support of planning and market research. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. The government shall not pay for information or materials received in response to this synosis and is not obligated by the information received. All information received in reference to this RFI marked PROPRIETARY shall be handled accordingly to Chief Information Office (CIO)
procedures. Desired participants in the market research shall provide documents that supports your organization's capability. Small businesses are encouraged to participate in the market research. Refer to attachment (Platform as a Service RFI 14 May) for additional details on the RFI.

NAICS Code: 334118, Computer Terminals and Other Computer Peripherals Equipment Manufacturing.  

The Agency seeks information on Cloud-Native Platform as a Service (PaaS) computing environments to facilitate the development of software applications that could support a variety of USAID Mission and Washington functions.

Scope/Objectives of Cloud-Native Platform as a Service (PaaS): 

The Agency seeks information on Cloud-Native Platform as a Service (PaaS) computing environments to facilitate the development of software applications that could support a variety of USAID Mission and Washington functions.  An ideal platform will be one that is highly extensible and scalable, and that specifically delivers on the Agency's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) commitment to "develop processes to define specific strategic priorities, evaluating results in light of those priorities, and incorporating conclusions into budget, program management, and project design decisions." This includes functions such as:

·         Ensuring Agency Policies and Strategies, which implement broader USG and Department of State (DoS)/USAID strategies, guide and inform Mission functions

·         Tracking alignment with Country Development Cooperation Strategies (CDCS) that are results-oriented

·         Operationalizing strategy through Project Design and effective Project Implementation

·         Ensuring that projects are on track to achieve intended results through Evaluation and Monitoring

·         Facilitating Learning and Adapting by coordinating and collaborating with development partners, testing promising new approaches, building on what works, and eliminating what does not

·         Ensuring that Program Cycle components contribute to improving the clarity, analytic rigor, and evidence with which requested Budget and Resources are connected to expected results

·         Support for other common Mission and Washington processes, as needed, which might include but is not limited to a master Mission contact list, a Common Mission Information System, Acquisition and Assistance Planning or a legal management application.

Description of Environment:  

The USAID Bureau for Management's Office of the Chief Information Officer (M/CIO) is observing a larger need for the Agency to provide technical solutions that can support each of the country Missions and Washington offices with their tasks and objectives. Currently, no universal technical platform exists for application development, which has resulted in some Missions and Washington offices developing solutions outside the purview of M/CIO. M/CIO strongly believes an enabler for supporting Agency functions is a computing environment that will be easy to develop, integrate and quickly market globally.  Speed and efficiency of application development is of utmost importance with more time focused on actual development to support Agency productivity and less time on the management of the platform.  The vision of USAID is to implement a standardized platform for development whereby common applications for Agency usage can be leveraged and adopted enterprise-wide reducing time to market; it is for this reason that M/CIO is interested in Cloud-Native PaaS computing environments.

Cloud-Native PaaS computing environments are viewed by the Agency as solutions residing within the cloud without the need for virtualized machines; hence, "cloudiness" is built into the platform itself at the application infrastructure level. The Agency envisions less challenges and risks to managing solutions built on Cloud-Native PaaS computing environments than Cloud-Based PaaS computing environments that sit on top of the cloud, and take system infrastructure that is "cloudy" with elasticity and builds familiar infrastructure on top of that. The agency is not interested in allocating virtual machines to perform auto-scaling managed by the vendor, and leveraging existing on-premise platforms on top of these virtual machines that are typical of Cloud-Based PaaS computing environments.

Adopting Cloud-Native PaaS computing environment will streamline the Agency's ability to meet user demand, rapidly deliver new capabilities, reduce time to market, and lower cost. By doing so, the Agency can focus energy on application and data innovation which can lead to more Mission-centric solutions and efficiencies, rather than continuous tedious management of the entire software stack.

Please provide technical overview and established catalog pricing for any capabilities and enhancements. Information gathered may be used for acquisition planning.

USAID request the following information from potential sources:

Company name, Duns number registered in SAM, and POC.
Provide a brief capability statement (not to exceed 8-10 pages).
References from past 3 Government agencies performance.
Describe organizations experience on previous federal project similar in
complexity to this requirement.
Estimated time to install and began deliverables.

If further information/clarification is needed please contact IT Acquisition Specialist, Calvin Payne via email [email protected] or phone (703) 666-5652.       

Responses are to be mailed by noon 7 June 2013 to Calvin Payne, USAID, 2733 Crystal Drive, M/CIO 11th Floor, Potomac Yards, Arlington, VA 22202. No faxed submissions.  

Bid Protests Not Available