User Experience Monitoring: Revision 1 to (Notice ID: UXM_RFI)

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Contract Opportunity

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/Enterprise IT and Cyber Infrastructure Division (AFLCMC/HNI)

User Experience Monitoring (UXM) Program Management Office (PMO)

Request for Information (RFI), Revision 1 to (Notice ID: UXM_RFI), System Integration for Network, Systems, and Application Performance Visibility

1. Background:

The Department of the Air Force (DAF), Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), Cyber and Networks Directorate (HN), Enterprise Information Technology and Cyber Infrastructure Division (HNI), Program Management Office (PMO) is seeking a vendor to act as a system integrator for current systems of record. The goal is to combine data sources into a unified view, incorporating Infrastructure, Network capability, and endpoint performance data into a single view.

The primary change between the initial RFI (SAM.Gov Notice ID: UXM_RFI) and this revised RFI is the shift in focus from seeking a comprehensive monitoring solution to emphasizing system integration using existing pilot tools already deployed across the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The initial RFI aimed to gather information on solutions that provide real-time visibility into IT network, systems, and application performance, with capabilities such as service dependency mapping, network modeling, and application performance monitoring. In contrast, the revised RFI seeks a vendor to act as a system integrator to combine data sources into a unified view, incorporating infrastructure, network capability, and endpoint performance data. The goal is to enable real-time visibility and proactive issue resolution by integrating existing monitoring tools and systems to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the traffic and infrastructure within DAF networks.

The UXM PMO is responsible for monitoring a complex network, systems, and application infrastructure that supports critical operations within the Department of the Air Force (DAF). This infrastructure includes base networking equipment, multiple data centers, cloud environments, VPNs, and a wide range of applications serving internal DAF users. The PMO is seeking a vendor to provide system integration services that can enable real-time visibility into the performance of the IT network, systems, and applications. The goal is to proactively identify and resolve issues by integrating existing monitoring tools and systems to achieve a comprehensive, holistic, and integrated understanding of the traffic and infrastructure within DAF networks. The system integrator deliverable should facilitate root-cause analysis, automated predictive problem detection, suggest solutions and fixes, and support planning and modeling for network improvements.

Currently, network operators are using fragmented, piece-wise approaches to problem discovery and root cause analysis. We are looking for a system integrator who can improve problem-solving throughput and issue discovery by tracing problems from endpoints through the network to the underlying services, utilizing new and existing telemetry sources.

The monitoring solution should include the ability to perform the following requirements:

• Service Dependency Mapping: Integrate tools to automatically map interdependencies between applications and alert on unexpected communication and bottlenecks.


• Network Modeling Capabilities: Integrate solutions to provide a dynamic network map, simulate network changes, compare configurations, support Distributed Tracing, and correlate with Network Events and Metrics from Logging.


• Application Performance Monitoring: Integrate tools for agent-based and synthetic testing for application performance monitoring, real-time transaction visibility, and user performance tracking.


• Customizable & Extensible: Support integration of tools for creating custom tests by non-expert programmers, ingesting and correlating data from other vendors, and integrating with existing DAF and DISA networking modeling investments.


• Standards: Ensure integration with industry standards supported, such as Export and Ingest of Open Telemetry data and compliance with Semantic Conventions for attributes.


• Accreditation and Approval: All integrated items must be Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliant and approved for use within the Department of Defense (DoD).

2. Response Format:

Administrative Information:

• Company Name, Address, and Point of Contact


• CAGE Code


• NAICS Code, size of pursuant business


• Large Business or Small Business designation


• Company Ownership: Domestic or Foreign (indicate country of ownership)


• GSA Schedule(s)/GWAC(s)/Other Ordering Vehicles held that could be applicable to this requirement

Solution Overview:

• Key features and capabilities of your system integration services


• How your services address the specified requirements for service dependency mapping, network modeling, application performance monitoring, customization, and standards compliance

Technical Specifications:

• Hardware and software requirements for integration


• Approach to integrating with existing DAF and DISA networking modeling investments


• Hosting: Is this a commercial SaaS approach, or can it be hosted on AFNET cloud assets with IL5 level security (highly preferred)?


• Does all/part of the software already have ATO certification on the AFNET?


• How do you decompose RUM (Application telemetry) into underlying network traces (TCP, SSL, DNS, etc.)?


• How do you correlate synthetic network traces (TCP, SSL, DNS) with application performance?


• How are metrics and log data from network gear (routers, firewalls) correlated with network traces?


• Can detailed application network traces be captured without modification of the applications? How does your approach do this?


• Does your solution support integration with ITSM systems such as ServiceNow? If so, what integration features are supported out of the box?


• How will you automate data cataloging so that our Air Force data analysis can have a clear understanding of the data on their own without your support?


• Does the system support automated aging of data into hot, warm, cold, and frozen tiers?


• What tuning and customization is possible for doing AI/ML assisted anomaly detection and forecasting?


• How will you automate schema drift and automated schema evolution as incoming telemetry changes based on decisions beyond the control of this program office?


• What technical mechanism do you have for data synchronization with PowerBI to allow our Air Force PowerBI users to analyze and create workflows for team collaboration and problem analyses?


• What Application RUM stats do you collect? And at what cadence? How do you handle computers that go offline, or move between bases or are occasionally on VPN networks?


• Data resilience: what rollback, snap shotting, geo-replication, etc. is supported?


• Health Monitoring: What tool-ware is provided for monitoring the health of the Application RUM clients and synthetic monitors?


• SolarWinds: we have NPM, NTM and NCM data from SolarWinds Orion servers, how would you incorporate that into our performance solution and what benefits would accrue?


• Please describe any native tool-ware for visualization and EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis), charting, cross-filtering, matrix scatterplots, correlation matrices, etc.


• We currently have 24TB of telemetry data covering 2 years, describe tools for live interactive aggregation and plotting for interactive exploration.

Implementation Approach:

• Deployment and configuration steps for system integration


• Estimated timeline for integration


• How would you manage collaboration with our AFNET operators who are currently collecting application, network, synthetic test, and infrastructure logs that need to be integrated into your solution?


• Vulnerability handling to include notifications, patches, and test plan prior to implementation


• Would the implementation include import of historical data (training data)? If yes, can you explain the migration mechanism?


• Is there any 3rd party software being used? If yes, how are vulnerabilities being handled for 3rd party software (i.e., notifications, patches tested before implementation)?


• Is it possible to have a model/reference architecture for a similar system that has been put in place?

Pricing Model:

• Licensing type or subscription fees


• Any additional costs for implementation, training, or support

Training & Support:

• Type of training provided for system integration


• Estimated timelines and manpower resources needed for integration


• Types of technical support and response times available during and post-integration


• After deployment, how many FTE are required to manage the operation and health of the system on a continuing basis?

References:

• Provide 2-3 examples of successful system integration projects in similar environments (Government or Non-Government), including the following information for each example:
  
  
  
  • Organization Name
  
  
  • Contract Number, if a government customer
  
  
  • Point of Contact (POC) and contact information
  
  
  
  

3. Questions and Submission Information:

Any questions regarding this RFI must be submitted via email on the Q&A Template within 10 days of this posting to the Contracting Officer at diana.tien@us.af.mil and the Contracts Specialist at veronica.schoultz@us.af.mil. All questions and their answers will be posted with this RFI for all interested parties to access.

If you provided a prior submittal, you can reply “no change” if the revisions to the RFI do not necessitate a change to your original submittal, OR you can submit a red-lined version with changes.

The Government requests submission of RFI responses no later than 15:00 Eastern Time on 30 January 2025.

4. Disclaimer:

This is an RFI, as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). Any information submitted by respondents to this request is strictly voluntary. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), or Invitation for Bid (IFB); nor does its issuance obligate or restrict the U.S. Government to issue an RFP, RFQ, or IFB in the future. The U.S. Government does not intend to award a contract or order based on responses from this RFI.

Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, RFQ, or IFB, if any are issued.

Respondents are advised the U.S. Government shall not pay for any information provided, the use of such information, the preparation of such information, travel expenses, nor any administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested parties’ expense.

Information received from this RFI will be used for acquisition planning and market research purposes; an acquisition strategy has not yet been approved for this requirement. As such, any response submitted to this RFI constitutes consent for that submission to be reviewed by military personnel, Government civilians, and Government support contractors.

Any proprietary information submitted should be identified as such and will be properly protected from disclosure. All DoD contractor personnel reviewing RFI responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information. The U.S. Government shall not be liable for damages related to proprietary information that is not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable U.S. Government regulations.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback with respect to any information submitted.

Issuance of this RFI does not obligate or restrict the U.S. Government to an eventual acquisition approach.

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