Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
University of Exeter
Northcote House
Exeter
EX4 4QH
Contact
Simon Denton
Telephone
+44 1392723333
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKK - South West (England)
National registration number
RC000653
Internet address(es)
Main address
Buyer's address
https://uk.eu-supply.com/ctm/Company/CompanyInformation/Index/53042
one.3) Communication
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at
https://uk.eu-supply.com/app/rfq/rwlentrance_s.asp?PID=53334&B=EXETER
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Education
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
Early Market Engagement - Enterprise Backup & Service Continuity solutions
Reference number
UOE/2022/073/SD
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 48710000 - Backup or recovery software package
two.1.3) Type of contract
Supplies
two.1.4) Short description
The University of Exeter is looking to partner with a vendor that can provide enterprise backup and service continuity solutions with a proven background in providing services to similar institutions.
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.2) Description
two.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)
- 72120000 - Hardware disaster-recovery consultancy services
- 72212710 - Backup or recovery software development services
- 72251000 - Disaster recovery services
- 72317000 - Data storage services
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UKK - South West (England)
Main site or place of performance
Exeter
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The University of Exeter is looking to partner with a vendor that can provide enterprise backup and service continuity solutions with a proven background in providing services to similar institutions.
In order to understand market capabilities and the fullest spectrum of available solutions we are seeking to utilise this early market engagement activity to obtain insight from organisations with relevant solutions who could achieve our stated ambitions and have proven experience of delivering such capability.
The outputs of this engagement exercise will inform our formal business case, and our ultimate procurement process in terms of route to market.
Background
The University of Exeter currently runs a highly available VMware vSphere environment running on a Nutanix cluster spanned across two datacentres. It currently hosts over 700 virtual machines and in excess of 200 physical servers, both Windows and Linux. Although the University currently has a cloud presence, there is no functionality in place to extend the Nutanix infrastructure into the public cloud. At present we have an active/passive deployment with no automatic failover to the secondary datacentre, should a total loss of the primary datacentre occur.
We are currently constructing a business case to look at service continuity and improving our RPOs/RTOs within the IT infrastructure and how we can mitigate risks that would lead to extended periods of downtime. To do this we are looking at adding new functionality into our current infrastructure, whether it be creating a fault tolerant virtual environment with automatic failover or expanding our DR (Disaster Recovery) capabilities into the cloud. Increased protection against cyber-attacks related incidents is exceptional important nowadays as universities are getting targeted more frequently.
A large part of the project is to replace our current backup products. There are currently four methods we use to back up several types of data and we are looking to consolidate these into one unified backup solution. The backup solution must be secure and immutable with an air-gapped repository. It should also be able to archive backups to public cloud storage with seamless functionality to restore directly to the VMware Environment (and Nutanix AHV in the future) or alternatively restore services into the public cloud to provide DR capability.
Response to Early Market Engagement
We are seeking suppliers with the relevant capability and experience to initial provide written feedback via the University of Exeter eTendering portal; https://uk.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=EXETER by initially registering interest in this specific opportunity; UOE/2022/073/SD, and submitting your written response to the published requirements (accessible via the eTendering portal) in the form of a word or pdf file, no later than 17:00hrs on the 12th October 2022.
two.2.14) Additional information
Attached as document
two.3) Estimated date of publication of contract notice
9 January 2023
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
Section six. Complementary information
six.3) Additional information
Details of the responses required from suppliers to this early market engagement can be accessed via the University of Exeter eTendering portal https://uk.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=EXETER, registering interest in this specific opportunity; UOE/2022/073/SD: Early Market Engagement - Enterprise Backup & Service Continuity solutions. Whereby the response requirements will be detailed in the attached PDF file.
Supplier responses to the stated requirements should be submitted via the eTendering portal in the form of uploaded word or PDF file.
Further to the written responses interested parties will the relevant capabilities will have the opportunity for face to face discussions during October 2022.