EMC Corporation, B-277133, September 4, 1997

B-277133 Sep 04, 1997 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights DIGEST Protest that agency improperly issued delivery order for noncompliant direct access storage devices (DASD) system is denied where. Although compliance with stated storage capacity and access time requirements could only be determined with certainty once DASD system was installed and used in the processing of the agency's particular data mix. The purchase order was issued on the basis of responses received to request for quotations (RFQ) No. 00-97-1012. Respondents were not required to offer 720 GB of actual. The agency was asked: Does 720 Gigabytes refer to the physical. Is all of the data to be stored on the proposed data storage subsystem compressible. Or is any of the data already compressed before being written to the storage subsystem such as . . . View Decision Matter of: EMC Corporation File: B-277133 Date: September 4, 1997 DIGEST Attorneys DECISION EMC Corporation protests the issuance of a delivery order to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) against its General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule contract. The purchase order was issued on the basis of responses received to request for quotations (RFQ) No. 00-97-1012, issued by the Department of Agriculture for direct access storage devices (DASD) for the agency's National Information Technology Center (NITC). EMC asserts that IBM's proposed DASD system does not satisfy two salient characteristics set forth in the solicitation. We deny the protest. The RFQ requested pricing for a DASD system, comprised of items available on GSA schedules, which would provide storage with "a minimum guaranteed capacity of 720 gigabytes (GB) of data" and an "[a]verage response time of 10 ms [milliseconds] or less for any data set under all conditions (e.g., during data recovery, volume rebuild or reconstruction)." As noted by Agriculture prior to closing, however, respondents were not required to offer 720 GB of actual, physical storage, but instead could meet the requirement with a virtual storage system that used data compression techniques that permitted 720 GB of data to be stored in a system of lesser physical capacity. Specifically, the agency was asked: Does 720 Gigabytes refer to the physical, or virtual capacity of the DASD storage subsystem? If an offeror uses data compression to provide larger user capacity on a lesser amount of physical capacity, what compression ratios should be assumed? Is all of the data to be stored on the proposed data storage subsystem compressible, or is any of the data already compressed before being written to the storage subsystem such as . . . DB2 . . . , etc.? In its written response furnished to potential respondents, Agriculture stated that: The 720 Gigabytes refers to virtual capacity, with the capability to store 720 Gigabytes of data presently stored on IBM 3390-3 DASD. [Emphasis in original.] NITC does not intend to specify a compression ratio to be used here. There will be some data (e.g., DB2) stored on this equipment that is already compressed. The RFQ required vendors to guarantee the actual performance of their systems as follows: The offeror guarantees that any DASD subsystem furnished as a result of this RFQ will meet or exceed the minimum performance level specified above, for any data stored on the DASD subsystem. The Government will monitor the performance of the subsystem(s) for a period of 120 calendar days from the date of installation. . . . Should the subsystem fail to meet the required performance level, the offeror will provide, at no additional cost to the Government, any additional equipment necessary to meet the specified performance level. . . . EMC asserts that IBM's proposed system failed to comply with the RFQ requirement for a minimum storage capacity of 720 GB. IBM proposed its model 9393 RAMAC Virtual Array Storage Model 2 DASD system, which the descriptive literature included in its quote described as employing built-in compression and compaction algorithms to provide an effective disk storage capacity of up to 726 GB, depending on the particular configuration of capacity increments selected. In its specific response to the specifications, IBM stated that it "guarantees that the one (1) RAMAC Virtual Array which is provided will have a minimum capacity of 720 gigabytes (GB) of data in the 3390 format. A conservative compression ratio has been used to determine that the RAMAC Virtual Array will have a minimum capacity of 720 GB." However, IBM described the three standard storage increments which it proposed by reference to their standard denominations in the descriptive literature: "420 GB EFF. CAP."; "EFF. CAP. INCREMENT-210 GB"; and "EFF. CAP.