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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Analytics Query Accelerator For VA Summit Data Platform Introduction: This is a Request for Information (RFI) only issued for conducting market research. Accordingly, this RFI ... REQUEST FOR INFORMATION Analytics Query Accelerator For VA Summit Data Platform Introduction: This is a Request for Information (RFI) only issued for conducting market research. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Quote (RFQ), Request for Proposal (RFP), nor a guarantee that one will be issued by the Government in the future; furthermore, it does not commit the Government to contract for any services described herein. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is not, at this time, seeking proposals or quotes, and therefore, will not accept, review, or evaluate unsolicited proposals or quotes received in response hereto. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted because of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. The information provided may be used by VA in developing its acquisition strategy and Performance Work Statement (PWS) or Product Description (PD). Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary; however, any information received shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the respondent. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted, or competition sensitive information contained in their response. This is a request for information and does not obligate the Government in any way, nor does it commit the Government to any specific course of action. Product information, brochures, part numbers, and/or other description information may be included with the submission. VA considers Brand Name Starburst Enterprise the only software that meets VA s minimum requirement for the below reasons. 1. Empower data analysts to perform real-time SQL data analytics across remote data sources for mission critical and time-sensitive business questions. 2. Enable real-time data analytics to answer mission critical and time-sensitive business questions without the need for traditional data wrangling steps such as data copying, data integration, and Extraction, Transaction, Load (ETL). 3. For ease of integration and operational simplicity within the Summit Data Platform VA requires containerized software deployment within our data analytics platform located in VA CSPs (Azure and AWS). 4. VA requires the vendor to have an architecture that specifically supports real-time data analytics, with parallel processing, pipelined in-memory execution properties and ANSI compliant SQL. Requirement: PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS VA Office of Information and Technology, DevSecOps (DSO), Data & Analytics (DA) has a requirement to procure a software product and associated services to enable a unified view of data across diverse analytics and reporting data sources while improving data accessibility, governance and query performance. An Analytics Query Accelerator (AQA) product such as Starburst will allow VA s data research community to efficiently integrate and analyze large volumes of data housed in disparate data platforms located in VA and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) datacenters while adhering to information security obligations. The AQA product will be a part of VA s Summit Data Platform (SDP). SDP is a cloud-based data analytics platform comprised of CSP and Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products spanning data analytics/reporting, governance, quality, observability, management, and security. The SDP supports VA s data research communities. SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS  VA Office of Information and Technology, Data & Analytics (DA) DevSecOps (DSO) has a requirement to procure a software product and associated services to enable a unified view of data across diverse analytics and reporting data sources while improving data accessibility, governance and query performance. An Analytics Query Accelerator (AQA) product such as Starburst will allow VA s data research community to efficiently integrate and analyze large volumes of data housed in disparate data platforms located in VA and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) datacenters while adhering to information security obligations. The AQA product will be a part of VA s Summit Data Platform (SDP). SDP is a cloud-based data analytics platform comprised of CSP and Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products spanning data analytics/reporting, governance, quality, observability, management, and security. The SDP supports VA s data research communities. Query Federation The ability to execute a query across multiple data sources, including structured, semi-structured and un-structured data from relational databases, NoSQL databases, Big Data platforms such Azure Data Lake Gen2, Azure Synapse, and data lakehouses. The ability to execute a query across VA and CSP data centers such as Azure and AWS. Distributed Query Optimization The ability to optimize queries across multiple data sources to reduce the amount of data transferred and minimize the time required to execute the query. Security and Data Governance The ability to integrate with identity provider via SCIM or SAML. The ability to enforce security policies and ensure compliance with data governance regulations across multiple data sources. The ability to integrate with CSP and VA identity and management services. The ability to integrate with COTS products such as Immuta that provide data security, governance, access, policy, and security services. Including services that assert attribute role and attribute based access controls. High Performance The ability to execute queries in real-time and handle large volumes of data across multiple data sources. A high performance system that can respond quickly to research community members performing ad-hoc data analysis in high data volume systems. Scalability The ability to scale horizontally to handle additional data sources and query workloads. The ability to scale horizontally with minimal system administrator interaction. The ability to control scaling limits. Data Models and Semantic Layer The ability for developers and users to design, create and publish data models on diverse data. The ability to create a business user friendly semantic layer that hides the complexity of a technical data model. SQL Support The ability to support the SQL standard for querying data sources. Compatibility with BI and Data Science Tools The ability to integrate with popular business intelligence (BI) and data science tools such as Tableau, Power BI, R (R Studio), Python (via tools like Juypter or similar notebook services) Enterprise Data Catalog and Discovery The ability for Data catalogs to automatically discover and catalog data sources in the Analytics Query Accelerator tool, including metadata, schema and lineage information, to enable easy exploration and discovery of data. The ability to integrate with VA s Enterprise Data Catalog platform (Collibra) Streaming Data The ability to source data from streaming data platforms such as Apache Kafka or similar tools. APIs and Connectors Ability to connect to and leverage a variety of data sources: The ability to support APIs and connectors for block and object storage services typically offered by CSPs such as Azure. The ability to connect to Big Data platforms typically found in CSPs such as Databricks, Hive, Azure Synapse, ADLS gen2. The ability to leverage Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) implementations such as that found in ADLS gen2. The ability to connect to commercial and open source RDBMSs such as Oracle, SQL Server and IBM DB2, PostgreSql. The ability to connect to a variety of NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or similar database technologies in Azure. Multi-tenancy support The ability to support different customer groups by creating workspaces secured by Active Directory security groups. VA will install the solution and integrate it with existing VA systems. The Contractor shall provide remote technical assistance in support of both the installation and integration. Support shall be provided during standard business hours 8-5pm EST.     The Contractor shall provide software and services for a Federated Query Engine which includes software licensing and ongoing technical support via a helpdesk for the life of the contract, i.e., a dedicated United States-based public sector team. Licensing includes unlimited users for a single network implementation. A "Network" is a single domain implementation with up to 3 environments with a single "production" environment. Typically, these are defined as development, test and production installs. The Contractor shall also provide training in the format of 3 remote instructor-led enablement workshop, for up to 3 days and up to 10 personnel per workshop.  Deliverable:  Analytics Query Accelerator product as described in the Salient Features section. Responses: Please submit a capability statement describing your company s ability to meet the overall requirement described and responses to the questions below. The capability statement shall be limited to 15 pages. Responses to this RFI shall be submitted via email to matthew.newell@va.gov no later than 1:00 PM EST on August 3, 2023. Are there any specifications that you believe are unachievable by industry? If so, please state why. What additional information would be needed to provide a firm fixed price quote for each item/task? Include the following identification information: Name of Company Address Point of Contact Phone Number Fax Number Email address CAGE/Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number Company Business Size and Status for NAICS 541519. Any Schedules held on General Services Administration (GSA), Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) held on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, or any other schedule not mentioned above to assist in determining acquisition strategy if you are included in one or more. Please also include Contract Number, expiration date, etc. Socioeconomic data: If a small business, what type of small business are you? Are you able to comply with FAR 52.219-6 and 52.219-14 in execution of this effort? Are you able to comply with VAAR 852.219-10, VA Notice of Total Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Set-Aside and with subcontracting limitations in 13 CFR 125.6 in execution of this effort? Is your company currently providing similar services to any government agency or other non-government customers? If so, please identify the agency or non-government customer. If you are unwilling to share your customers' identity, please address whether your company offers the same or similar services, commercially (outside the federal government). Post RFI Phase VA envisions that once RFI responses are reviewed, select responders may be invited to provide a face-to-face or telephonic briefing to VA personnel to answer additional questions with respect to the response given. VA retains sole discretion of whether any post RFI briefings are warranted and which industry partners may be invited to provide additional market research information. Based on market research results, the RFP/RFQ may be made available on NASA SEWP V. It is the responsibility of interested parties to regularly monitor the NASA SEWP Website for updates. The government will not provide hard copies of the solicitation once issued. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the website and downloading the solicitation, its attachments, and any amendments from the internet site identified above when/if issued. All information regarding the procurement is provided herein, and no additional information shall be provided at this time. OFFERORS ARE ADVISED THAT THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE DELAYED, CANCELED, OR REVISED AT ANY TIME