Datacenter Relocation and Decommission

 (i)        This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for a commercial service prepared in accordance with the format in Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) Part 12 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

(ii)        The solicitation number is 75N98026Q01006 and the solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ).

This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the RFO Part 12—Acquisition of Commercial Products and Commercial Services, and is not expected to exceed the dollar value authorized under RFO Part 12. A fixed-price type of purchase order is contemplated for this requirement.

(iii)       The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) Number 2026-01, dated March 13, 2026.  

(iv)       The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is  541513 – Computer Facilities Management Services, and the small business size standard is $37,000,000 in revenue or less. This requirement shall be solicited using full and open competitive procedures.

(v)        DESCRIPTION

            The Government requires the following services: to relocate information technology infrastructure from the Alternate Processing Facility (APF) in Ashburn, Virginia, to NIH Building 33 in Bethesda, Maryland, and to complete physical decommissioning of the APF.

(vi)       Please refer to Attachment 1 – Statement of Work for details and information describing the specific requirements.

(vii)      The Government anticipates award of a firm fixed-price purchase order. The Contractor shall furnish all labor, supervision, transportation, equipment, materials, tools, and project management necessary to relocate designated IT infrastructure and complete decommissioning activities in accordance with the Statement of Work.

The place of performance is as follows:

Origin: Alternate Processing Facility, 43830 Devin Shafron Drive, Ashburn, VA. Destination: NIH Building 33, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD. Second Tape Library: 5601 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD.

(viii)     The provision at RFO Clause 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors—Commercial Products and Commercial Services is applicable and incorporated by reference into this solicitation.

(ix) The provision at RFO Clause 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Products and Commercial Services is applicable and incorporated by reference into this solicitation. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered.

Each quote will be evaluated in strict conformity with the evaluation factors. The evaluation will be based upon the demonstrated capabilities of the prospective Contractor in relation to the needs of the project as set forth in the solicitation.

A price reasonableness determination will be made and a best value analysis will be performed.  The best value analysis will take into consideration the results of the technical evaluation, price evaluation, and the ability to complete the work within the Government's required schedule. The analysis will document that the award represents the best value to the Government (considering technical evaluation factors, past performance, and price) to meet the Government’s needs.  The Government reserves the right to issue an order to the best advantage of the Government, technical merit, price, and other factors considered.

All aspects of a quote are subject to discussion, including price, technical approach and terms and conditions.  At the completion of discussions, the Contractor will ensure the technical and price quote reflects the mutual understandings of the requirement and if requested, submit a revised technical and price quote to the Contracting Officer.

The Government may request clarifying information from the Contractor, as it relates to its quote.

If an award will be made without conducting discussions, Contractors may be given the opportunity to clarify certain aspects of their quote (e.g., the relevance of the contract, the Contractor's past performance information, and adverse past performance information to which the Contractor has not previously had an opportunity to respond) or to resolve minor or clerical errors. Discussions will not be held with any Offeror determined to be technically unacceptable.

The Government reserves the right to make a single award, multiple awards, or no award at all as a result of the solicitation.  In addition, the solicitation may be amended or canceled as necessary to meet the Government’s requirements.

A tradeoff process shall be used for this acquisition because it has been determined to be in the best interest of the Government to consider award to other than the lowest priced Offeror or other than the highest technically rated offeror. All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are more important than cost or price. For this acquisition, the following considerations will be part of the trade-off process: Technical Evaluation Factors including Past Performance, and Price.

The evaluation factors are used by the technical evaluation committee when reviewing the technical quotes. The factors below are listed in order of its relative importance for evaluation purposes.

1. Technical Approach

Subfactor

Evaluation Criteria

A. Overall Technical Methodology and Work Sequencing

Demonstrates a clear understanding of the complete scope; provides a logical sequence for decommissioning, equipment relocation, rack removal, restoration, cleaning, and closeout; identifies dependencies, work boundaries, assumptions, exclusions, and acceptance criteria.

B. Electrical Decommissioning Approach

Provides a detailed method for disconnecting/removing RPP cabinets, feeders, whips, conduit, and associated electrical infrastructure; addresses de-energization verification, lockout/tagout, termination, labeling, code compliance, and protection of remaining electrical systems.

C. Server and Specialized Equipment Relocation

Describes procedures for de-racking, packing, transporting, unpacking, installing rack slides, and re-racking servers; addresses ESD controls, high-value equipment protection, transportation methods, and specialized handling of equipment such as the SpectraLogic TFinity tape library.

D. Fiber, Low-Voltage, and Rack Decommissioning

Provides methodology for identifying and disconnecting fiber, protecting infrastructure that remains, coiling and securing retained fiber, removing fiber tray/ladder rack/containment, de-racking equipment, removing racks, and staging materials for recycling.

E. Asset Tracking, Chain of Custody, and Data Protection

Provides a comprehensive asset-control process including asset tags/serial numbers, origin and destination reconciliation, custody handoffs, discrepancy reporting, vehicle tracking, and safeguards for data-bearing or sensitive equipment.

F. Raised Floor, Cleaning, and Facility Restoration

Describes replacement of damaged raised-floor tiles, protection of underfloor infrastructure, HEPA/static-safe cleaning above and below the floor, debris control, patching/painting, and restoration of the space to the required facility standard.

G. Safety, Security, and Facility Protection Methodology

Addresses electrical safety, ESD, lifting/material handling, open-floor-tile hazards, PPE, protection of active equipment, facility surfaces, doors, elevators, loading areas, and incident-response procedures.

H. Quality Assurance, Testing, Acceptance, and Closeout

Provides inspection methods, inventory verification, documentation of electrical terminations, before/after photographs, punch-list procedures, recycling/disposition documentation, final reconciliation, and measurable completion criteria.

2. Management Approach

Subfactor

Evaluation Criteria

A. Project Management, Communication, and Change Control

Describes the management structure, single point of contact, communication protocols, progress reporting, issue escalation, decision tracking, change management, and coordination with the customer and other stakeholders.

B. Schedule, Staffing, and Downtime Minimization

Provides a credible project schedule, labor loading by phase, shift strategy, critical dependencies, resource availability, and methods for maintaining the required completion period while minimizing disruption.

C. Site Logistics and Stakeholder Coordination

Addresses loading docks, elevators, building management, security/access, parking, delivery routes, origin/destination coordination, recycler scheduling, subcontractor coordination, and other site constraints.

D. Risk Management and Contingency Planning

Identifies key risks such as equipment damage, schedule delays, vehicle/equipment failures, unforeseen field conditions, access limitations, or inventory discrepancies and provides realistic mitigation and recovery strategies.

3. Corporate Experience

Subfactor

Evaluation Criteria

A. Comparable Data Center Decommissioning and Relocation Experience

Demonstrates successful completion of projects comparable in size, complexity, technical requirements, and risk, particularly projects involving live or mission-critical data centers, electrical decommissioning, server relocation, fiber infrastructure, rack removal, and facility restoration.

B. Experience Handling High-Value and Specialized Equipment

Demonstrates corporate experience relocating high-value servers, storage systems, tape libraries, sensitive electronics, or similarly complex equipment requiring specialized protection and transportation.

C. Organizational Capacity and Resources

Demonstrates availability of appropriate vehicles, specialized handling equipment, electrical/low-voltage capabilities, asset-tracking systems, technical subcontractors, contingency resources, and organizational capacity to perform the work.

D. Environmental Disposal and Recycling Experience

Demonstrates successful experience with responsible recycling, e-waste handling, material segregation, donation/reuse, disposal documentation, and landfill-diversion practices.

E. Past Performance and References

Provides relevant customer references demonstrating quality, schedule performance, responsiveness, asset protection, problem resolution, and successful project completion.

4. Personnel Qualifications

Subfactor

Evaluation Criteria

A. Project Manager

Qualifications, experience, and demonstrated success managing comparable data-center relocation/decommissioning projects; ability to coordinate multiple technical disciplines, customer stakeholders, subcontractors, schedule, risk, and change.

B. Electrical Lead / Licensed Electrician

Appropriate licenses and demonstrated experience with data-center electrical distribution, RPPs, feeders, conduit, electrical terminations, lockout/tagout, and electrical decommissioning.

C. Server / Data Center Equipment Relocation Lead

Demonstrated experience de-racking, packing, transporting, and re-racking enterprise IT equipment and specialized high-value systems.

D. Fiber / Low-Voltage Lead

Demonstrated experience identifying, disconnecting, protecting, and removing fiber, ladder rack, trays, containment, and other low-voltage infrastructure in data-center environments.

E. Safety / Quality Lead

Relevant safety and QA/QC experience, including electrical safety, material handling, ESD, facility protection, inspection, documentation, and incident management.

F. Overall Team Qualifications and Certifications

Appropriate training, certifications, years of experience, commercial/data-center relocation experience, and clearly identified employee/subcontractor roles for the personnel who will actually perform the work.

COST/PRICE EVALUATION

Offeror(s) cost/price Proposal will be evaluated for reasonableness. For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the government that a prudent person would pay when consideration is given to prices in the market. Normally, price reasonableness is established through adequate price competition, but may also be determined through cost and price analysis techniques as described in FAR 15.404.

Cost Realism: The specific elements of each offeror(s) proposed costs are realistic when the proposed cost elements are evaluated and found to 1) be realistic for the work to be performed; 2) reflect a clear understanding of the requirements; and 3) are consistent with the unique methods of performance and materials described in the Offeror’s technical Proposal.

Cost Realism will be evaluated only on the Offeror’s inputs which the Government will use to determine the most probable cost to perform the contract in a manner consistent with the Offeror's Proposal. Cost realism analysis will be conducted in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(d). The result of the cost realism analysis will be considered in making the best value tradeoff decision. However, this evaluation will not be conducted on any Offeror whose Proposal is determined to be technically unacceptable.

PAST PERFORMANCE

NIH will evaluate the Offeror’s Proposal based on recent experience in providing similar services as outlined in the Statement of Work. Offeror's past performance information will be evaluated after the technical evaluation. However, this evaluation will not be conducted on any offeror whose Proposal is determined to be technically unacceptable.

The evaluation will be based on information obtained from references provided by the offeror, other relevant past performance information obtained from other sources known to the Government, and any information supplied by the offeror concerning problems encountered on the identified contracts and corrective action taken.

The government will assess the relative risks associated with each offeror. Performance risks are those associated with an offeror's likelihood of success in performing the acquisition requirements as indicated by that offeror's record of past performance.

The assessment of performance risk is not intended to be a product of a mechanical or mathematical analysis of an offeror's performance on a list of contracts but rather the product of subjective judgment by the Government after it considers relevant information.

When assessing performance risks, the Government will focus on the past performance of the offeror as it relates to all acquisition requirements, such as the offeror's record of performing according to specifications, including standards of good workmanship; the offeror's record of controlling and forecasting costs; the offeror's adherence to contract schedules, including the administrative aspects of performance; the offeror's reputation for reasonable and cooperative behavior and commitment to customer satisfaction; and generally, the offeror's business-like concern for the interest of the customer. The Government will consider the currency and relevance of the information, source of the information, context of the data, and general trends in the offeror's performance. The lack of a relevant performance record may result in an unknown performance risk assessment, which will neither be used to the advantage nor disadvantage of the offeror.

(x) The provision at RFO Clause 52.212-4, Terms and Conditions—Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition. See Attachment 3.

(xi) There are no additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions applicable to this acquisition.

(xii) The Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) is not applicable to this requirement.

(xiii) Responses to this solicitation must include sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities of providing this service. Responses to this solicitation must include clear and convincing evidence of the Offeror’s capability of fulfilling the requirement as it relates to the government requirements stated in this solicitation. 

Basic cost and price information in the Offeror’s proposal must contain sufficient information to allow the Government to perform a basic analysis of the reasonableness of the Offeror to supply the required services. Any other information or factors that may be considered in the award decision may include such factors as: past performance and prompt payment discount terms.

The Contractor shall submit its quote electronically.

Offerors MUST verify the valid certifications, registrations, and Representation and Certifications from the System of Award Management (SAM) applications at www.SAM.gov, which may be indicated on the Offeror’s cover sheet.

In addition the vendor Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All Offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) www.sam.gov.
All responses must be received no later than September 11, 2026, 4:00 PM EST. Late responses may not be accepted. All responses must reference solicitation number 75N98026Q01006. Responses must be submitted electronically to rob.bailey@nih.gov.  For information regarding this solicitation, please contact Rob Bailey by email at rob.bailey@nih.gov or by phone at 301-451-7586.

(xiv) DATE QUESTIONS DUE: Questions and requests for clarification must be submitted electronically to the Contracting Officer, Rob Bailey, at rob.bailey@nih.gov on or before 11:00 AM EST, September 7, 2026. Fax responses will NOT be accepted.

ATTACHMENTS

• Attachment 1 – Statement of Work (SOW)
• Attachment 2 – Supplemental Information
• Attachment 3 - RFO 52.212-4, Terms and Conditions - Commercial Products and Commercial Services
• Attachment 4 – Invoice and Payment Instructions