Renewal of Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Services, base year in fiscal year 2026 with 4 option years

Sources Sought Notice – REQT-HIS-2026-00161

Title:               Renewal of Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Services, base year in fiscal year 2026 with 4 option years

Agency:           Indian Health Service/Office of Technology/Division of Information Operations

Issue Date:      Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Due Date:        Tuesday, August 25, 2026, no later than 12:00pm EST

POCs:             Responses must be submitted via email to dana.monroe@hhs.gov. Include “Renewal of Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Services, Base +4 – Your Company Name” in the Subject of the email and complete/return the IEE Representation Form

This Sources Sought Notice (SSN) is for market research and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or an obligation or commitment to issue a solicitation by the Indian Health Service (IHS). This SSN is seeking information from the specific types of entities listed below to assess their capabilities in fulfilling the requirements set forth in this SSN. The information from this SSN will be used to determine the appropriate set-aside, if any, in accordance with the applicable regulations listed. The Government encourages the identified to respond to this Notice and will be assessed of their capabilities in the following priority:

1. Indian Small Business Economic Enterprises (ISBEE)
2. Indian Economic Enterprises (IEE) in accordance with HHSAR 326.603-1

Responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether any ISBEE/IEE set-aside is possible based on the Contracting Officer’s reasonable expectation of obtaining offers from two or more relevant concerns that will be competitive in terms of market price, product quality, and delivery capability. An organization that is not considered an ISBEE/IEE firm under the applicable NAICS code should NOT submit a response to this notice. The applicable primary NAICS code for this requirement is 493110 – General Warehousing and Storage. This is a requirement for annual Automated Data Collection (ADC) Media Backup for a base year plus 4 option years, dates outlined below. The current services are managed and residing with a proprietary Iron Mountain facility and infrastructure. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and may not be considered when assessing entity capabilities.

Base Year:       September 29, 2026 – September 28, 2027

Option Year 1:  September 29, 2027 – September 28, 2028

Option Year 2:  September 29, 2028 – September 28, 2029

Option Year 3:  September 29, 2029 – September 28, 2030

Option Year 4:  September 29, 2030 – September 28, 2031

Background

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for Indian people, and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. IHS provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 2.3 million American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) who belong to 573 federally recognized Tribes in 37 states.

This Sources Sought Notice is for the continuation of IHS’s electronic backup data and physical records which currently reside with Iron Mountain’s propriety backup infrastructure. Iron Mountain provides managed, offsite/cloud-based backup, storage, retrieval, and disaster recovery services for the IHS’s electronic records and information systems to include secure encrypted storage of backup data, scheduled and on-demand backup jobs, media/tape management and vaulting, data restoration support, and business continuity/disaster recovery capabilities designed to meet defined recovery time objectives. Migrating this data to a different provided would require full data migration and re-formatting efforts, introducing material risk of data loss, corruption, or gaps in backup chain that are subject to HIPAA, FISMA, and HHS/HIS records retention requirement. Besides the risks, the cost may be prohibitive to make a vendor change.

            

Purpose and Objectives

The above statements represent the requirements being met currently and what IHS is looking for in a new 5-year term contract.  This Sources Sought Notice is simply to seek information from an ISBEE or IEE entity to assess their capabilities in fulfilling the requirements set forth in this SSN; the information from this SSN will be used to determine the appropriate set-aside, if any, in accordance with the applicable regulations listed.

Capability Statement/Submission Information

A response to this SSN will be in the form of a capability statement to demonstrate capability and experience in the task areas identified further below. Specifically, please provide the following information below to demonstrate capabilities:

Cover Page

Please provide a cover page to include:

1. Company Name
2. Company Designation (ISBEE/IEE/SB)
3. Type of Business – as applicable (e.g. 8(a), Woman Owned Small Business, HUBZone, etc.)
4. UEI Number
5. Point of contact, email address, and phone number
6. Primary NAICS Code(s)
7. Existing federal contracting vehicle(s) numbers, as applicable (e.g. GSA MAS number, NITAAC/CIO SP3, other Government Wide Agency Contracts, etc.)
8. System for Award Management (SAM) registration status. Note, all respondents must be registered on the SAM located at http://www.sam.gov/ prior to any potential award.

Executive Summary

Provide a high-level overview of your services and include how it will benefit the Indian Health Service.

Technical Areas

Respondents are expected to submit a capability statement detailing and demonstrating their expertise and technical capabilities in the areas outlined further below in this SSN.  Please see attached Statement of Work for full requirements.

Past Performance

Please provide any past performance information to support demonstration of your capabilities in the relevant technical areas and magnitude of work.

Other Information (Optional)

You may include any other information that may be helpful in developing or finalizing the requirements of the potential acquisition.

Submission Format

To assist the Government in an expeditious review of your capabilities, the capability statement should be organized as follows:

• Cover page
• Executive Summary
• Technical Areas in the order listed
• Indian Health Service Buy Indian Act Indian Economic Enterprise Representation Form
• Other Information, as applicable

The tailored capability statement should not exceed 10 pages excluding Past Performance information. Font must not be less than 10 point (for readability) and may be submitted in either in either Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) but must be a standard 8-1/2 by 11 inch in paper size. All proprietary information should be marked as such.

Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice.

Disclaimer and Important Notes

This notice does not obligate the Government to award contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this SSN is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses or the Government's use of such information. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s capabilities to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or

received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on a government GPE. However,

responses to this Notice will not be considered adequate responses to any resultant solicitation.

Confidentiality: No classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response.

The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant

solicitation(s). 

Thank you for your interest in IHS programs.