ARX PrivateServer HSM upgrade

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with ARX, to upgrade the current ARX PrivateServer HSMs with ARX PrivateServer HSM Pro Subscription v5, including installation and customer Technical support at NIST, Gaithersburg, MD campus. ***** Sole source determination is based on the need for a brand name and one responsible source procurement. Specifically, the purchase of the upgrade from OISM's ARX PrivateServer HSMs to ARX PrivateServer HSM Pro Subscription v5 including Customer Technical Support. It includes production use and installation of 2 upgraded ARX Private Server Pro HSMs appliances v5 and Customer Technical Support for those systems. Our current ARX HSMs have been in production since their purchase in the year 2013. They were purchased to provide secure certificates used in authentication and access to Enterprise applications, users workstations through the use of PIV cards, and the NISTNET wireless network. Interruption to these services would cause a major disruption to NIST staff. This ARX PrivateServer HSM Upgrades and technical customer support renewal is peculiar to one publisher, ARX, Inc. (now Docusign), who has a copyright/patent on these products, making this a limited competition. There are no other identified sources amongst publishers that have a similar product that would be able to successfully support this requirement at a realistic cost to the Government. Replacement of our existing ARX Private Server HSMs with another publishers products would incur additional product and labor costs *****The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 511210 Software publishers. ****** A determination by the Government whether to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. *****Interested parties that believe they could satisfy the requirements listed above for NIST may clearly and unambiguously identify their capability to do so in writing on or before the response date for this notice. This notice of intent is not a solicitation. Any questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing via email to Brian Jamieson at Brian.Jamieson@nist.gov. All responses to this notice of intent must be submitted so that they are received at Brian.Jamieson@nist.gov no later than April 14, 2017 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time.