Open-source Platform for Drupal

This is a presolicitation/notice of intent to sole source for services prepared in accordance with FAR Part 8. It is the intent of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) to procure professional services on a sole source basis from Acquia Government at Carahsoft, 11493 Sunset Hills Road, Suite 100, Reston, Virginia 20190 to provide FedRAMP certified services/software required to maintain the Drupal platform to support the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) website.  The current version of Drupal is 10. The North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) 541511- Custom Computer Programming Services.

Background:

As part of the mission statement, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is tasked with communicating health-related behavioral and social sciences research findings to various stakeholders within and outside the federal government. As part of a broader communications effort to fulfill this part of the Office’s mission, relevant behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) content is disseminated via a public-facing websites - https://obssr.od.nih.gov, https://oppnet.nih.gov/.  There is also a website in development to provide information on funded covid research. 

OBSSR is required to ensure its digital platforms, including websites, are mobile-friendly, secure and accessible for all. To that end, OBSSR will implement the latest stable Drupal version (10) and appropriate models to include open date formats (XML, JSON, APIs, etc.), mobile devices, 508 compliance, multiple browser support, and responsive design (mobile-friendly). Before an installation of Drupal, detailed, specific system/software requirements must be in place: browser requirements, database server, web server, PHP requirements, etc.

Purpose/Objectives:

Services/software will be provided to the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and will include the following:

•           Detailed system requirements for a Drupal installation (browser requirements, database server, web server, PHP requirements, etc.)

•           Secure, compliant platform for the Drupal web content management system

•           Site monitoring, reporting, management and troubleshooting tools

•           24/7 technical support

•           Technical components of purchase shall include ACE Basic Code, Compute-optimized large load balancer, Multi-pupose large single tier HA, memory-optimized large staging, 200 GB cloud file system storage, 50 GB cloud storage, and a developer remote IDE.

Contractor Requirements, Tasks and Deliverables:

The Contractor shall provide access to a platform for hosting Drupal from the date of award for the duration of one full year.

Period of Performance:

September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2024

Place of Performance: The work to be performed under the resultant contract shall be performed at the Contractor’s facility.

Sole Source Justification:

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research is seeking an enterprise platform for Drupal. Acquia is the only open-source platform providing Cloud-based, personalized solutions to build, manage and activate digital experiences at scale, across the enterprise. In addition, Acquia has a dedicated server for NIH ONLY websites. The requirements of this contract include the following, all of which Acquia is uniquely capable of fulfilling:

• Dedicated server for NIH only websites
• FedRAMP certification
• Authorized Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider
• Development, staging and production environments compatible with Drupal
• Detailed system requirements for a Drupal installation (browser requirements, database server, web server, PHP requirements, etc.)
• Appropriate bandwidth per month to support OBSSR’s websites
• Continuous integration system/tools and tools for code management
• Secure, compliant platform for the Drupal web content management system
• Site monitoring, reporting, management and troubleshooting tools
• 24/7 operational support to troubleshoot issues (including short turnaround response for critical issues)

Acquia currently provides secure enterprise solutions for NIH websites for the following Institutes, Centers, and Offices:

• • NIH.gov
  • NCI
  • NIH Libraries
  • NIDCD
  • NIDCR
  • NIBIB
  • NIH OEEODM
  • NIH Human Resources
  • NIH Precision Medicine
  • NIEHS
  • OD/ODP
  • OD/ORH
  • All of Us Research Program

This is not a Request for Quote (RFQ), nor is a RFQ available; however, all responsive sources may submit a proposal in a timely manner which will be considered by NIH. Firms interested in responding to this notice must be able to provide the required services, property, facilities and funding specified in the SOW and in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and policies. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

1.0       Introduction

The purpose of this order is to obtain FedRAMP certified services/software required to maintain the Drupal platform to support the OBSSR website.  The current version of Drupal is 10 as of the drafting of the SOW, but the OBSSR website will require the most recent version of the software upon contract award and each subsequent year. 

1.       Background 

As part of the mission statement, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) is tasked with communicating health-related behavioral and social sciences research findings to various stakeholders within and outside the federal government. As part of a broader communications effort to fulfill this part of the Office’s mission, relevant behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) content is disseminated via a public-facing websites - https://obssr.od.nih.gov, https://oppnet.nih.gov/.  There is also a website in development to provide information on funded covid research. 

OBSSR is required to ensure its digital platforms, including websites, are mobile-friendly, secure and accessible for all. To that end, OBSSR will implement the latest stable Drupal version (10) and appropriate models to include open date formats (XML, JSON, APIs, etc.), mobile devices, 508 compliance, multiple browser support, and responsive design (mobile-friendly). Before an installation of Drupal, detailed, specific system/software requirements must be in place: browser requirements, database server, web server, PHP requirements, etc.

3.0       Scope and objectives

Services/software will be provided to the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research and will include the following:

• Detailed system requirements for a Drupal installation (browser requirements, database server, web server, PHP requirements, etc.)
• Secure, compliant platform for the Drupal web content management system
• Site monitoring, reporting, management and troubleshooting tools
• 24/7 technical support
• Technical components of purchase shall include ACE Basic Code, Compute-optimized large load balancer, Multi-pupose large single tier HA, memory-optimized large staging, 200 GB cloud file system storage, 50 GB cloud storage, and a developer remote IDE.

4.0       Type of contract

The contract type will be a firm-fixed-price.

5.0       Period of Performance

The period of performance will be for one year, from September 30, 2023 – September 29, 2024.

6.0       Place of Performance

All services shall be provided at the Contractor’s facility.

7.0       Deliverables  

The Contractor shall provide access to a platform for hosting Drupal from the date of award for the duration of one full year.

8.0       Materials and Property

All materials developed under this contract are the property of the U.S. Government. Under no circumstances shall a vendor place a copyright on any materials that the vendor develops, provides, and receives payment for under this contract.