Data Centre Proposed Solutions - A Guide to Bidding

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

Summary of Resolution to Vendor Queries as provided in Responder(s) Conference on

“Expression of Interest for provision, implementation and

maintenance of IT Infrastructure at ICAI”

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Page 1

SL.No. Vendor Query Response

1

CMC

Page 5, Clause 3.1 Guiding Principles, Point No.2- “Proposed Data Centre and DR solution should be Tier-III+ standards “- Can we propose hosting of entire solution on established Tier-III+ Data Centers through our partners which would be more economical & cost effective.

Data Center envisaged for the current requirement will be owned and maintained by ICAI only. Bidders are requested to adhere to the requirements specified in the tender

2 Page 12, Clause 6.3 Annexure B, Point No. II- “The main features of the proposed solution and any areas of financial, operational, development risks that are perceived”- Do we need to propose any specific solution or just a general understanding of their scope of work.

Bidder need to give the following details overview as part of their proposition:

1) Bidder's understanding of the requirement and 2) Bidder's proposition for the requirement based on the details made available in the EOI document. 3 Page 12, Clause 6.3 Annexure B, Point No. IV-

“Upgrade strategy for the proposed infrastructure components across servers, network and associated equipments”- The project duration as mentioned in the EOI document is 6 months implementation time plus 5 years support after go-live for which the bidder will provide FM services Hence, what is meant by upgrade strategy is not clear -does it refer to upgrade of existing IT infrastructure of ICAI?

As part of the bid response, bidder's need to give 1) The best practices adopt in the industry w.r.t to IT infrastructure, which includes the current and future technology.

2) Upgrade strategy is for the servers and its guiding technology within or beyond 5 years of the duration

4 Please, clarify whether only parties that submit the EOI response will be allowed to bid in further application/infrastructure tenders or it will be open to all.

As mentioned in the EOI. ICAI will retain the discretion to invite additional bidders if required for the RFP stage.

5

Ecole Solutions PVT Ltd

There is one section in the document that talks about Live Virtual Classes( Page 3). As a vendor , do we also have to provide the Solution for conducting Live Virtual Classes to the 5 regional offices, 125+ branch offices, 8 Decentralized offices (DCOs), 125+ stores and 150+ ITT training centers spread across India.

Yes, requirements for the solution to be gathered designed and developed. Further implementation and change management to sustain the same will be part of scope of work.

6

3i Infotech

4. Eligibility Criteria/Prequalification (S.No.5) The bidder shall not be under a declaration of

ineligibility or blacklisting with any of the Government/ Public sector unit agencies The bidder shall not be under a declaration of ineligibility or blacklisting in IT services with any of the Government/ Public sector unit agencies

Awaited inputs from ICAI Legal Department

7

HP

What is the extent and depth of solution expected the EOI stage?

It is expected from individual bidders to give a over view of their understanding of the requirement, based on the information provided in EOI. However, the detailed RFP for the requirement will be released subsequent to the selection of qualified bidders after the evaluation

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8 Do we also have to suggest any products /Brands/OEMs

Bidders are expected to propose technology and not the brands for EOI response

9 Will the bidders be evaluated basis the eligibility criteria cum Solution Proposed or it is only basis the eligibility criteria only.

Bidders will be primarily evaluated on the eligibility criteria and proposed solution (technology strength) of the firm

10 Can a bidder produce its international references also? We as HP being a global organization would have implemented projects of similar nature across the globe and can cross leverage our international

expertise for the benefit of ICAI.

Bidder can propose relevant implemented references across the globe

11

HCL

Page 8 , Point 2 under Eligibility criteria The bidder or in case of consortium at least

one company should have implemented at two data centre projects of Tier – III/IV supply, commissioning & maintenance of, servers, routers, switches, LAN, SAN, security solutions and facilities management in India during the past 3 years.

Facility Management of DC/DR support or Facility management of any other project for any organization, kindly clarify?

Bidder should have implemented at least 2 data centers projects of Tier-III/IV, with in India which includes Supply, commissioning and maintenance of servers, routers, LAN, SAN, security solutions, including facility management for the same during past 3 years

12 Page 8 , Point 2 under Eligibility criteria The bidder or each member in case of a consortium should have positive net worth and an annual turnover of more than INR 200 Crores or above for the last three Financial Years (FY’07-08,08-09, 09-10).

Our financial year (2009-2010) ended on 30th June, 2010 and auditing for the same is still going on, so we request for the acceptance of turnover from the years 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09.

Bidder need to provide a provisional certificate on the turn over from certified Charted Account

13 Page 11, point 6.1

Have you attached the documents pertaining to 5 years of experience in IT field?

Kindly clarify the type of supporting document required.

Please refer to page 8/14, where bidder need to provide certification of incorporation or registration document under the companies act, 1956 stating that bidder's firm is having a 5 years of experience in the IT field

14

ESDS Software Solutions

Isolation transformer is required? Bidders should kindly note that, the current tender document floated is just an Expression of Interest. The detailed specifications of the requirement will be floated separately to the shortlisted vendors. This EOI is only to evaluate the capabilities of the firms to execute the envisaged project.

15 Power distribution for the data center will be in scope of supplier or not ?

16 Installation Transport and Commission of generator, cabling from generator to LT panel, cabling up to the panel, panel to UPS and other equipments will be in our scope? 17 How many number of ISP are to be

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18 Ideally there should be separate ISP room and USP room, where all the switches or other components of ISP are there and becomes easy to maintain. So is there provision we can get which is recommended as Tier III standards.

19 We assume the new hardware components is in our scope however is there specific brand that has been decided?

20 Procurement and installation of hardware, racks and cabling is in our scope?

21 What all monitoring features are required in the data center or level of monitoring or should we take as per Tier III?

22 General lighting apart from data center electrification is in vendors scope?

23 Humidity control is not specified, however as per Tier III it is required, we hope we can take it?

24 Earthing for data center equipments and UPS will be in our scope?

25 Can we get civil layout of the sites? 26 Should we consider the false ceiling? 27 What will be the built-up area for the DC site

and DR site?

28 What is the approximate load bearing capacity at DC and the DR site?

29 How many 42U racks will be deployed in the DC and DR site?

30 In case of consortium is it mandatory to have the annual turnover of more than INR 200 Crores or above for the last three Financial Years (FY’07-08,08-09, 09-10) for each party ?

Each member or party need to have the annual turnover of more than INR 200 Crores 31 What would be approximate budget for this

project ?

32

Reliance Communications LTD

Customer need to freeze on RTO & RPO for DR Kindly provide the inputs

As clarified above 33 On replication, please specify whether host

based replication or SAN based replication Kindly provide the inputs

As clarified above 34 Inhouse Data Centers built for commercial use

(Internet Data Centers) should be accepted under eligibility criteria

Kindly provide the inputs

As clarified above 35 Evaluation need to be considered on no of

project of DC build of TIER III level. Kindly provide the inputs

Proposed points on evaluation criteria are appreciated and well taken. However, the eligibility criteria and

evaluation parameters are defined and clearly mentioned in the EOI. Bidders are expected to adhere

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36 The bidder should have more than 2,00,000 sq.ft of operational datacenter raised floor space in India.

37 The bidder should have experience of building and operating datacenters for more than six years.

38 The bidder should have more than 300 datacenter professionals on company payroll. Kindly provide the inputs

39 The bidder should have a NOC dedicated to datacenter operations and this NOC should be of minimum 100 seats.

40 The bidder should possess valid ISO 27001,ISO 9001 and ISO 20000 certificate for the datacenter operations.

This is already part of eligibility criteria 41 In the EOI, there is a clause "Onsite support to

end user whenever required and resolve the problem to user satisfaction."

Please confirm scope of End User Support

Please elaborate the query as it is not clear 42 The proposing responder’s general

understanding of the project requirements and the proposed total solution

Does customer need solution from respondent along with EOI, pls clarify

Please elaborate the query as it is not clear

43 The main features of the proposed solution and any areas of financial, operational, development risks that are perceived Does customer need detail from respondent along with EOI, pls clarify

As clarified above

44 Upgrade strategy for the proposed infrastructure components across servers, network and associated equipments

Does customer need strategy from respondent along with EOI, pls clarify

As clarified above

45 Describe the strategy suggested for future upgrade of the supplied equipment and/or products and any impact this strategy may have on operation etc.

Does customer need strategy for future upgrade from respondent along with EOI, pls clarify

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Sl. No Vendor RFP

Reference(s) Content of RFP requiring Clarification Points of Clarification Required Response

46

TCS

Section 4, Pt#2

The bidder or in case of consortium at least one company should have implemented at two data centre projects of Tier – III/IV supply, commissioning & maintenance of, servers, routers, switches, LAN, SAN, security solutions and facilities management in India during the past 3 years

Data Centre projects of Tier III/IV are stringent and not many companies have certified Tier III/IV Data Centres. Is this criteria essential?

Bidder is advised to adhere

to the RFP requirements

47 Section 4, Pt#2

Individual companies bidding in specific areas must provide documentary evidence for the applicable areas of work certified by a practicing Chartered Accountant

Which are the other independent bodies whose certificates will be acceptable

Certified CA and Indian Govt. agencies certifications are acceptable 48 Section-3(a), Scope of Work

Data Centre (DC) setup to host all the envisaged applications

Kindly share the desired environments for ERP

implementation at the Data Centres (DC & DR) - Production, Test & Development, etc.

Detailed RFP stating the requirement will be published after the selection of bidders from EOI tender

49

Section-3(a), Scope of Work

Disaster recovery setup as a fallback option in-case of a disaster: This should be near capacity of DC

TCS understanding is that DR shall be 100% of DC infrastructure (in terms of

processing power). i) Is DR required for both Business

critical applications and supporting

applications. ii) Is HA and Redundancy etc is also

required at DR site. As stated above 50 Section-3(b), Scope of Work

Disaster recovery setup as a fallback option in-case of a disaster:-should be capable of replicating the complete hosted business applications in DC.

Pls share the existing Replication

method As stated above 51

Section-3(b), Scope of Work

Disaster recovery setup as a fallback option in-case of a disaster: should be capable of replicating the complete hosted business applications in DC

Kindly share the desired figures for RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective).

As stated above 52 Section 3(c), Scope of Work Scope of Work

What is the existing Infrastructure setup and connectivity available at all locations? As stated above 53 Section 3(c), Scope of Work

Connectivity at various ICAI offices including the head office, 5 regional offices, 125+ branch offices, Decentralized offices - 8

What is the preferred mode of connectivity required for

Decentralized offices, stores and ITT training centres

Whether redundancy in connectivity is required

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54

Section 3(c), Scope of Work

Connectivity

What is the Scope in terms of Monitoring & Management from a NMS perspective

What are the Peripherals required at Stores and ITT training centres

As stated above

55

Section 3.c, Scope of Work

Connectivity - Internet Links

Whether separate internet links are required other than MPLS VPN connectivity at DC, DR and other offices? If so, pls specify the locations.

As stated above

56

Section 3.1, Guiding Principles

Solution proposed should be Scalable, Modular and Redundant and Highly Available

Whether locations other than DC & DR ,also requires redundancy in terms of N/w and security devices? Kindly clarify on the Modular aspect, with respect to Computing hardware.

As stated above

57

Section-3.1, Guiding Principles

Proposed solution should adhere to all the best practices and standards followed by the IT industry

Please share your views on the desired IT industry standard & practices for adherence.

Bidder is expected to propose the best practices adopted within its organization, as a part of solution.

58 Section

3.2.1.1 IT Infrastructure Setup

Whether centralized management and monitoring of application, n/w and security devices are required

Detailed RFP stating the requirement will be published after the selection of bidders from EOI tender 59 Section-3.2.1.1, IT Infrastructure Setup

Design of servers, networking equipments and deployment topology

For existing applications (if any)-

Please share hardware requirements for the existing applications (business critical & supporting).

As stated above 60 Section-3.2.1.1, IT Infrastructure Setup

Design of servers, networking equipments and deployment topology

For new application - Please share

the User details for Hardware sizing (User base, Internal & External user classification with numbers, Concurrency, desired utilization etc) for business critical & supporting applications.

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61

Section-3.2.1.1, IT Infrastructure Setup

It is responsibility of the bidder to bring out all the necessary inputs that are required to design and to deploy the same

Please share the hardware landscape for Application deployment with

following inputs. 1. Desired scalability (Vertical &

Horizontal). 2. High Availability (Redundancy &

Load balancing) 3. Fault Tolerance (Clustering)

4. Processor. Memory, disk requirement for each server with SAN

connectivity requirement. 5. Network I/O requirement for each

server etc

(Application Vendor has to share all the hardware requirements for deployment)

As stated above

62 Section 3.2.2 IT Security Deployment

Whether Users at Data centre and other locations would require browsing of Internet, Is a Proxy solution required?

As stated above

63 Section 3.2.2

Automation of Business centres and other offices. To supply and deploy all the necessary equipments, like workstations, laptops, networking equipments (switches, routers, modems and necessary cables) where upgrades are identified by ICAI as warranted

What are N/w, security devices and other peripherals available currently and requires upgradation?

As stated above

64 Section 3.2.2 Automation of Business centres and other offices

What are the minimum Peripherals

required at new offices As stated above 65 Section 3.2.3 Managed services

Pls share details of type of Managed services ICAI is looking for post go-live? Whether insource, outsource or co-source model?

As stated above 66 3.2.2 New offices Pl specify how many new offices are

in line for five yrs period As stated above 67

Section-3.2.3 , Managed Services

Bidder need to undertake the following

Backup management activities o Onsite/Offsite backup

For existing applications (if any) -

Kindly share details about the existing backup plan - onsite/offsite for scope clarity. As stated above 68 Section-3.2.3 , Managed Services

For new application - Kindly share

requirements for the desired backup plan - onsite/offsite for scope clarity.

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69

Section-3.2.3 , Managed Services

Kindly clarify on the bidder scope on IT/Non-IT requirement for offsite backup. As stated above 70 Section-3.2.3 , Managed Services

Establishment of help desk support in doing the following activities

Pls share current call volumes,

expected growth y-o-y As stated above 71

Section-3.1, Guiding Principles

Proposed Data Centre and DR solution should be Tier-III+ standards

Kindly clarify on the DC & DR scope - whether this includes Non-IT part also (like Civil, electrical, Cabling etc).

As stated above Section

3.2.1.3 IT Physical Infrastructure Civil Related 72 TCS

Please elaborate the scope of the complete Physical Infra. Does this include the areas listed below:

Section

3.2.1.3 IT Physical Infrastructure Civil, HVAC, ,SDS etc 73

TCS

Please advice on the Floor area being designated for the Physical build activity.

74 Please advice on which floor of the building the DC would be located

75

Please advice on the floor strength /load bearing capacity of the floor on which the DC is to be built

76

Please advice on the minimum floor area that can be segregated for the DC built purpose

77

Please advice on the height available on the floor ( space between the Floor and the ceiling)

Section

3.2.1.3 IT Physical Infrastructure Electrical Related 78

TCS

Please advice on the 2 separate Power distribution company from which the power is being drawn in the building

79

Please advice where the Power is getting terminated within the Building. Is it in the HT panel or not.

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80

Please advice on the capacity of the main cable from which the Power is being drawn

81

Please advice whether the proposed DC location has got a separate LT Panel and Bus Bar

82 Please advice if the building/Floor will have its own dedicated Earth pit

83

Please advice on the Power conditioning at the DC location ( Single Phase/3 Phase)

84

Please advice on the Power Backup arrangements available at Data Centre location ( generator/ alternate Generation Company)

85 Please advice on the availability of Power (Frequency of Failure, etc)

86 Section

3.2.1.3 IT Physical Infrastructure HVAC Related 87

TCS

Please advice on the Temperature conditions in the premise - Max Temperature in Summer - Minimum Temperature in Winter

88 Is the building/Floor having a Centralized Air-conditioning 89 Are there any Windows/Doors on the

fore walls of the DC area 90 Are any of the windows/doors SUN

facing Section

3.2.1.3 IT Physical Infrastructure Security & Safety Related 91

TCS

Are there any major security issues in around the DC area?

Any other nearby areas? 92

Please advice on any specific area related requirements ( discussion room , strong room etc.) 93 Please arrange to share the Floor

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Section

3.2.1.1 IT Infrastructure setup Server Related 94

TCS

Please advice on the Application architecture

95

Please advice on the Application deployment model being envisaged (Centralized/Decentralized) 96

Please advice on different set of Applications(ERP, other business ,Administrative, Educational related application ) for which server and storage infrastructure is required 97

Please advice on the total number type of servers required for each Application modules (DB, Web, App, Reporting etc)

98

Please advice on the detailed configuration for each of the servers(CPU, RAM, HDD etc) 99 Please advice on the preferred

Hardware Platform (RISC / CISC) 100 Please advice on the preferred OS for

each of the server ( RHEL, MS) 101

Please define the High availability/ redundancy requirement for each of the servers

102

Please also suggest which of the servers require Load Balancing (Web, App etc)

103

Please advice on the different environments required within the DC ( Production, Test, Development , Training)

104

Please advice on the zone wise deployment architecture (DMZ, MZ etc.)

Section

3.2.1.4 IT Infrastructure Applications Mail and Messaging related 105

TCS

Please advice if there is an existing mailing solution in place 106

Any preference on the mailing solution architecture in terms of Centralized or Decentralized 107 Please advice on Preferred mail and

Messaging solution 108

Please advice on any specific features required in the mail and messaging (Chat, Calendar, Meeting etc.)

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109 Please advice on the number of mail users

110 Please advice on the mail box size per user

Section

3.2.1.4 IT Infrastructure Applications Antivirus related 111

TCS

Please advice on any preference with regards to the antivirus

solution(centralized/de centralized) 112 Please advice on the total number of

desktop users and laptop users Section

3.2.1.4 IT Infrastructure Applications Domain controller 113

TCS

How many internal users

114 What is the desired AD architecture (Centralized/ decentralized) 115 Whether AD need to be integrated

with Proxy or not Section

3.2.1.4 IT Infrastructure Applications RSA 116

TCS

Whether single sign on is required 117 Is two factor authentication a

requirement Section

3.2.1.1 IT Infrastructure Setup Storage and Backup related 118

TCS

Please advice on the nature and type of Data to be stored in the storage area (Design files, data files) 119

Please advice as to which all servers would have an external storage requirement (DB , APP)

120 Please advice on the total storage requirement (RAW, Usable) 121

Please advice on the duration for which the data needs to be stored in the storage area for quick retrieval 122

Please advice the duration after which the data should be send to the archival area

123 Please advice on year on year growth in the storage area.

124

Please advice on Tape Backup related requirement ( Data to be backed up on Tape etc)

Section 3 (c ) Scope of Work Local Area Network at DC

125 TCS Please advice on total number of nodes/users at the DC

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126 How far are these nodes located from the Data Centre

127

Please arrange to share the site Layout plan(Blueprint) clearly indicating the:

- Nodal Location(Building wise, floor wise)

- Distances

- Demarcations in terms of roads in the Plant/campus area

Section 3 (c ) Scope of Work Location IT & Non IT requirement

128

Please advice if the each location will have its own server room (Client Application or Offline operations ) 129

Please advice on the server (Web, DB, App etc.) storage details at each location

130

Please advice on the space and environment conditions( Power, Earthing , HVAC etc.) at each of the locations

131 Please advice on total number of nodes/users at each location 132

Please advice on the Printer and Peripheral requirement at each location with detailed specification 133 Please advice if the devices required

have to be network ready

134 How far are these nodes located from the Server room

135

Please arrange to share the site Layout plan(Blueprint) clearly indicating the:

- Nodal Location(Building wise, floor wise)

- Distances

- Demarcations in terms of roads in the Plant/campus area

Section 3 (d) Scope of Work WAN related

136

TCS

Please advice whether internet/ MPLS users will access the application through common Router 137

Please advice on the bandwidth requirement for Internet and MPLS users

138 Is redundancy to be envisaged for these users

139

Please advice on the criticality of the link to be provided for each of these users/locations

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140

Pleas advice as to who will provision for the WAN infrastructure at locations

141 Please advice who will bear the one time /recurring bandwidth cost 142

Please advice on the number of extranet users/ locations from where these users will get connected 143

Please advice whether these users will access the Application through their own infrastructure /bandwidth