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7 Dec 22 Revision: AFLCMC discovered an inadvertant mistake in the Sources Sought. The last two pages were from a carry over template used to write our sources sought. Only the key focus areas identif... 7 Dec 22 Revision: AFLCMC discovered an inadvertant mistake in the Sources Sought. The last two pages were from a carry over template used to write our sources sought. Only the key focus areas identified in 2.0 are problem sets for this CSO. The last two pages that articulate additional/repeated key focus areas were an omission. An updated Sources Sought is provided and no other changes were made. AFLCMC Data Operations CSO NOTICE: This is a Sources Sought notice; there is no solicitation at this time and AFLCMC is not requesting formal proposals. Requests for solicitation will receive no response. This Sources Sought notice is published for market research purposes only. AFLCMC is requesting white papers for purposes of conducting FAR 10 Market Research to assess current market capabilities and assist AFLCMC in supporting an acquisition strategy that seeks to identify business enterprises capable of meeting agency requirements. Based on the results of this market research, AFLCMC intends to issue a CSO which is described in greater detail below. The CSO authority was permanently authorized by section 803 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 (Pub. L. 117-81) and Class Deviation 2022-O0007. This market survey is conducted to identify potential capable and responsible sources for varying data operations technology focus areas identified in Section 2.0 of the attached. 1.0 OVERVIEW: This Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) is intended to be a streamlined vehicle to allow for the establishment of a modern Data Operations (DataOps) solution supporting a variety of critical national security systems. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) programs require the utilization and leveraging of the latest technology advances from a large variety of prospective Contractors. AFLCMC invites innovating technical approach proposals addressing all aspects of DataOps focusing on the below objective areas. However, these enumerated focus areas are minimum requirements, and AFLCMC is open to the identification of technologies useful for modernizing DataOps for sophisticated security and weapon systems. This requires delivering an enduring, secure, robust, efficient, responsive, agile, elastic and extensible classified DataOps solution. This CSO will focus on existing and emerging technologies and platforms across AFLCMC, Department of the Air Force (DAF), Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community, as well as leveraging commercial markets to perform an integrated analysis of the capabilities of varying technologies that support our critical national security systems and prioritize investments over time. If market research supports the establishment of a CSO and a formal solicitation is issued, the CSO may result in the award of FAR Part 12 Contracts or Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) under 10 USC 4022, through Calls via Amendments to the CSO. The Government anticipates future calls to be competitively solicited. These Calls will contain specific Areas of Interest related to program specific DataOps Focus Areas. Those specific Areas of Interest are what prospective Contractors shall focus their solutions towards. The Government reserves the right to issue separate calls for each DataOps Focus Area or combine a number of Focus Areas under an individual call. As part of this Sources Sought, Industry feedback is requested to guide the Government in how to solicit future calls as described in Section 3.0 below. AFLCMC intends to follow the processes identified in this CSO unless otherwise noted or annotated in each Call. AFLCMC is not obligated to make any awards as a result of this sources sought announcement and all awards under a future CSO are explicitly subject to the availability of funds and successful negotiations. The Government is not responsible for any monies expended by any vendor prior to the issuance of a CSO or any awarded contract/agreement. AFLCMC reserves the right to modify the solicitation requirements of this CSO and each subsequent Call at its sole discretion. If executed, this CSO seeks to fund innovative technologies that propose new solutions to expand AFLCMC’s capabilities as it relates to modern DataOps Focus Areas. AFLCMC is interested in receiving capability white papers from all interested vendors to include, but not limited to, traditional defense contractors, nontraditional defense contractors, large businesses, small businesses and research institutions (collectively referred as vendors). It should be noted, many of the critical national security systems operate in varying classification environments, including highly classified environments – such as collateral, Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, and Special Access Program. Though some DataOps Focus Areas may require unclassified work, respondents should be aware that vendors cleared to work, or the ability to be cleared to work, in highly classified environments will be necessary for any award. The CSO is a streamlined acquisition process that seeks to reduce acquisition timelines and acquire new, innovative solutions that vendors can bring forth to meet the stated Areas of Interest detailed in each Call. 2.0 Data Ops Technology Focus Areas AFLCMC is seeking capability papers on commercial solutions that can ultimately be provided “as a Service” (though initial service-based prototyping efforts are acceptable) to prove out end-to-end DataOps for representative modern embedded weapon systems. Vendors may propose a solution that addresses all or some of the below capabilities, so long as they provide an innovative solution to the DataOps problem set. The desired end-state is a prototype DataOps capability that enables a weapon system to exploit data across the full lifecycle of an embedded weapon system (development, integration, test, deployment, operations and sustainment) across all classification levels. An ideal partner has first-party ability to directly modify underlying commercial hyperscale and edge cloud fabric to meet the project’s requirements across all classification levels and supporting partners would be considered as enabling providers supporting specific aspects of the potential solution. Each Technology Focus Area identifies an area where prospective vendors can bring substantial value to meet the DataOps mission. These focus areas are meant to be read expansively and not limited to the enumerated Focus Areas. Additional Focus Areas may be included via amendments to this CSO. AFLCMC prefers to bucket several Focus Areas in singular Calls, which means vendors that can optimize several Focus Areas will be preferred. AFLCMC requires provider(s) to deliver an innovative state-of-the-art commercial solution that innovates all or some of the following capability areas. NOTICE: For this Sources Sought, the Government is requesting capability statements for Vendors outlining existing commercial technologies that could be used in a new and innovative way to address some or all of the below Focus Areas. Capability Statements should not be longer than two, single spaced pages per focus area. Further, AFLCMC requests an additional two-page summary per focus area dedicated to past performance history, including summarizing prior government programs, relevant industry experience with any feedback received. Vendors may request to meet with AFLCMC CSO team to discuss capabilities, which the Government will grant on a case-by-case basis in the Government’s sole discretion. Further, the Government reserves the right to establish an Industry Day for purposes of interfacing with interested vendors. Vendor capability statements shall be submitted by 15 December 2022 at 12:00 p.m. E.S.T. to neal.duiker@us.af.mil. As more fully described in the attached, AFLCMC is seeking the following key core capabilities: Hybrid Cloud IaaS, PaaS, SaaS Information Transport Fielding Operations Crypto-Net Management/Commercial Solutions for Classified Network Operations Center (NOC)/Security Operations Center (SOC) Help Desk As further detailed in the attachment, AFLCMC requires other capabilities beyond the above core capabilities. These other capabilities include: Secure Acces Service Edge Software-Defined Networking Edget Hyper-Coverged Infrastructure Zero Trust Architecture Infrastructure as Code Cloud Native Design Software Defined Perimeter enabing classified data processing Augmented and Virtual Reality Capabilities (training and maintenance) Data Encryption Cyber, secure processing Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence data factories Big Data Capability Continous Integration/Continuous Development Software pipeline Application Development + application refactoring for cloud Existing capability refactoring/integration for Application Programming Interfact microservice architecture Reverse Engineering Additive Manufacturing