Overview
Lakeshore School Division “the Division” is requesting proposals for new servers, storage and required storage networking systems that provide upgraded storage, compute, and network performance.
This proposal shall include hardware, hardware maintenance and support, and licensing costs (exclusive of Microsoft licensing). Division personnel will perform hardware installation, configuration, and ongoing maintenance. Lakeshore School Division deems the project complete when all hardware is received, confirmed in good working order, and confirmed suitable for the Division’s requirements. The Division will consider traditional server and SAN, converged, or hyper-converged solutions.
Data center facilities are located at:
23 Second Avenue (Lakeshore School Division Administration Office)
Eriksdale, Manitoba
R0C 0W0
About Lakeshore School Division
Lakeshore School Division is located approximately one hour north of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Division occupies 7000 square kilometers of Manitoba’s Interlake Region serving nearly 1000 students (as of September 2018) in ten schools. The six communities that are served by Lakeshore School Division are Moosehorn, Ashern, Eriksdale, Lundar, Inwood and Fisher Branch.
Primary Contact:
Justin Critch
Technology Coordinator
Email: critchj@lakeshoresd.mb.ca
Tel: (204) 739-2101 ext. 1225
Mail: P.O. Box 100
Eriksdale, Manitoba
R0C 0W0
RFP Terms and Conditions
By responding to this RFP, the Vendor signifies agreement with and is bound by the following terms and conditions.
Executive Summary
Lakeshore School Division reserves the right to:
- Reject any or all proposals
- Waive technicalities or irregularities
- Issue contract awards for any combination of services and vendors, either all or part of the business, as Lakeshore School Division sees fit
- Accept any proposals it determines to be in the Division’s best interest
- Negotiate any or all of the scope and terms of any contract that flows, directly or indirectly, from this RFP
- Add or remove scope into the contract negotiation process
- Lakeshore School Division has no obligation to reveal the basis for contract award or to provide any information to suppliers regarding the evaluation or negotiation processes
Definition of Terms
Participating Vendor: a company that has submitted a proposal in response to this RFP. (Whether or not it is successful)
Proposal: authorized response to this RFP submitted by a participating vendor
RFP: Request for proposal
Supplier/Vendor: any company or individual that/who has received a copy of this request for proposals
Acceptance or Rejection of RFP Submissions
The Board of Trustees and Lakeshore School Division reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, to negotiate changes and modifications in the vendor’s response to this proposal, or to waive any informalities, irregularities or defects in any proposals, should it deem to be in the best interest of Lakeshore School Division to do so.
Inquiries may be made as to the financial stability of the vendor, and the Board of Trustees may request financial references. The Board of Trustees may ask for additional information.
While the financial responsibility of the vendor is a significant concern, the Board is equally concerned with the proven ability of the vendor to satisfactorily perform his contract so that the service will be provided in accordance with the proposed contract documents. Lakeshore School Division is not bound or committed to action or a decision based on this proposal specification, and may cancel proposal proceedings at any time prior to the awarding of the contract.
Because the Division bases any decision to award a contract on the proposals submitted, Vendors should include all requirements, terms and conditions in their Proposal, and should not assume that any opportunity will exist to add such matters after the Proposal is submitted.
All participating vendors will be notified promptly of RFP acceptance or rejection.
Selection of Vendor(s)
Lakeshore School Division may choose more than one vendor to supply all or part of the requested hardware, software and services, if it finds this to be in the best interest of the Division. While price is a significant factor, it is not the sole criteria for selection. A list of criteria is used to evaluate all proposals.
The Division reserves the right in its sole discretion to clarify any proposal after the closing date and time and to negotiate with one or more Vendors it deems to be finalists in this process after the closing date and time without becoming obligated to offer the same opportunity to any other Vendor(s).
The Division reserves the right in its sole discretion to waive any non-compliance by a Vendor with the requirements of this Request for Proposal in order to obtain the best overall value to the Division.
The Technology Coordinator and Director of Operations and Infrastructure will review all proposals and will prepare the recommendation to the Board of Trustees.
Selection of Winning Proposal
The Board of Trustees and administration are not bound by the lowest cost proposal and can negotiate anytime during the process at its discretion but will not be unreasonable or unfair in its evaluation and review of proposals.
The Division reserves the right in its sole discretion to cancel this Request for Proposal at any time before or after the closing date and time without award. Any implication that the lowest or any Proposal will be accepted is hereby expressly negated.
Proposal Selection Criteria
Lakeshore School Division will evaluate participating vendor proposals on all elements of each response, including costs, technology, the solution’s flexibility, capability, performance and other factors as described below:
- Quality and Features of Equipment and Software
- Service availability and resiliency
- Scalability, capacity and performance
- Capability and features
- Compatibility with existing infrastructure, systems and processes
- Delivery/time to implement and deploy
- Manageability
- Comprehensive security
- Longevity of the proposed service(s)/system(s)
- Service and support, including implementation services
- Product quality
- Known product road maps and life cycles
- Technical experience of the vendor
- Qualifications of the vendor
- Responsiveness of the vendor
- Experience with school divisions or other public sector employers
- Prior working relationship with the Division
Pricing/Cost
Proposals must include cost of hardware, licensing, support, and shipping.
Prices must remain firm for at least 60 days after the proposal opening.
Discovery Process
Inquiries and Changes
It is the responsibility of each Vendor to inquire about and clarify any requirements of this Request for Proposals, which are not understood. All amendments and clarification of the contents of the RFP must be in writing (Email is preferred) and addressed to the primary contact identified in this RFP.
If a Vendor discovers any inconsistency, discrepancy, ambiguity, errors or omissions in this Request for Proposals, it shall notify the Division immediately.
Submissions of Questions
Questions submitted to anyone other than the specified contact will not be answered. Lakeshore School Division cannot be responsible for the accuracy of answers, clarifications or other information received from means other than those described herein.
All inquiries and questions regarding the RFP must be in writing, (Email is preferred) and addressed to the primary contact identified on page 2 of this RFP.
Division Follow-up Questions
Lakeshore School Division may, at its sole discretion, seek clarification from any or all participating vendors regarding proposal information and may do so without notification to other responders.
The Division may, at any time prior to closing, make and stipulate changes to this Request for Proposals.
The Division may provide additional information, clarification, or modification by written addenda. All addenda shall be incorporated into and become part of this Request for Proposals.
The Division shall not be bound by and the Vendor agrees not to rely upon oral or other informal explanations or clarifications not contained in written addenda.
Proposal Submission
Proposal Preparation Costs
All costs incurred in the preparation and submission of proposals and related documentation, including participating vendor presentation to Lakeshore School Division, shall be borne by the participating vendor.
Proposal Validity
Proposals must be valid for 60 days from the proposal due date.
Proposal Withdrawal
A vendor may, without prejudice to itself, modify or withdraw its response by written request, provided that the request is received by Lakeshore School Division primary contact prior to the proposal due date.
How to Submit your Proposal
All responses must be submitted by the proposal due date and time. Proposals must be submitted via email to:
Justin Critch
Technology Coordinator
Lakeshore School Division
23 Second Avenue
P.O. Box 100
Eriksdale, Manitoba
R0C 0W0
Telephone: (204) 739-2101 ext. 1225
Email: critchj@lakeshoresd.mb.ca
Proposal Updates or additional materials
Any updates to this request or public clarifications will be posted to Lakeshore School Division’s website at https://www.lakeshoresd.mb.ca/RFP
Proposal Materials to be Submitted
One digital copy shall be emailed to critchj@lakeshoresd.mb.ca
Financial Proposal Instructions
Pricing shall be provided for all technology included in the vendor’s response and should be reasonably broken down.
Vendors shall state all assumptions used for pricing.
Vendors should list all items requiring additional costs.
Confidentiality
Lakeshore School Division expects the vendor to respect the confidentiality of Lakeshore School Division’s information. As a result of its participation in relation to this RFP, the supplier may gain access to information regarding the Division’s business or on the use, development and acquisition of other services by Lakeshore School Division. The vendor shall treat all information as confidential and shall not use or disclose the information beyond the intended purpose, being the service provider, participating vendor or third party of preparation and response to this RFP. The vendor shall not disclose the information to any third party, except where the information exists in the public domain and/or is exempt from protection under applicable law. Any other distribution, copying or disclosure is strictly prohibited.
If the vendor is required to release any information to a third party in preparing for its proposal, the vendor is requested to solicit at least the same confidentiality obligations from this third party prior to releasing the information.
Should the vendor or third party be unable or unwilling to comply with Lakeshore School Division’s confidentiality requirements, it must return all RFP material received and withdraw from this RFP process.
Lakeshore School Division will consider proposals submitted by vendors as confidential. All materials submitted by a vendor will become the property of Lakeshore School Division and will not be returned.
RFP Timeline
DUE DATE for proposal submission is January 23rd 12:00 p.m. CST
Release of the RFP
January 9, 2019
At the release date the RFP materials will be made available directly to registered vendors and channel partners as well as posted on the Division’s website.
RFP Submittal Due date
January 23, 2019 12:00 P.M CST
RFPs must be submitted electronically no later than January 23, 2019 at 12:00 P.M CST. The Division reserves the right to reject any RFP proposals that were not received at the submittal date and time specified.
RFP Award Process
During the review process, the Division will evaluate and compare the submitted RFP proposals and prepare for a decision. The Division will contact the vendors if additional clarifications are needed and conduct any negotiations with identified finalists. A presentation of recommendation shall be made to the Board of Trustees who will vote on approval of recommendation. An award shall be announced one day after formal Board of Trustee approval.
A decision is expected following the board meeting on the evening of January 29th, 2019.
Hardware Receipt
As soon as possible but no later than April 30th, 2019.
Solution Requirements
The Division has no specific preference on the hardware solution and will accept SAN-and-servers or converged solutions.
The Division currently uses VMware virtualization but due to the costs of VMware and Microsoft licensing, advances in Microsoft Storage Spaces software, and the fact that most of the Division’s virtual servers are Windows-based we expect to migrate from vCenter to Hyper-V following the acquisition of this hardware. VMware solutions will be accepted but must include VMware licensing costs.
The Division requires a solution that will allow all virtual servers to continue operating at full capacity if any single component fails or is offline for maintenance.
The minimum hardware requirements are:
- 10 TB of usable storage
- Storage performance on our current systems has been a major bottleneck so better-performing storage (hybrid with SSDs and/or high RPM spinning disks) is preferable to capacity
- 20000 Mhz CPU (servers should generally have two Intel Xeon-class processors)
- 192 GB Memory available for virtual servers (despite any single component failure)
- 10 Gb/s connections between all devices and the ability to connect to our existing network infrastructure at this speed
Network hardware must be able to connect to the Division’s existing network infrastructure at 10 Gb/s. That means connecting to two HP 5130 10Gb/s SFP+ ports and two Ubiquiti Unifi 48-port 10Gb/s SFP+ ports. Proposed network hardware should have at least eight available SFP+ ports excluding any used to interconnect equipment within the proposed solution.
The proposed solution may optionally include any of the following, which will be purchased separately if not included in the proposal:
- 42U Wheeled Server Rack (example: APC NetShelter 42U) with PDUs and Cable Management arms (preferably horizontal PDUs and vertical cable management)
- Uninterruptable Power Supplies with on-line power protection and network management and monitoring (example: 2x APC SRT3000RMXLA-NC)
The solution should come with a technical support contract for the proposed hardware, generally longer terms (ie, 5 years) are preferable.
Lakeshore School Division Current Environment
Part of the work that will be done internally by the Division will be reducing the overall number of virtual servers and upgrading to later operating systems. As such reviewing the solution requirements is likely to be more useful than the using existing environment as a guide.
The current environment consists of:
- 1x HP BladeSystem c3000 enclosure with three Blades
- 3x HP BL460c G8
- Intel Xeon E5-2640 2.5Ghz
- 132 GB Memory
- 10 Gb 2-port 554FLB Adapter
- 1x HP ProCurve 6120XG Blade Switch
- 3x HP P4300G2 SAN Nodes
Current Usage Information:
- CPU Average across all three hosts 13,000 Mhz
- 282 GB of memory in use across all three hosts
- 6.85 TB of storage
- Averages 2500 IOPS, 30 kilobyte payload size, 1 Gb/s throughput
The Division currently has a 3-server vCenter 5.5 cluster (HA and DRS running) with approximately 30 virtual machines.
Virtual Windows Server 2012 servers:
- 2 Domain Controller
- 1 Guest-network DHCP and DNS
- 2 AD FS
- 2 AD FS WAP
- 2 Exchange Server 2016
- 1 File and Print
- 1 Certificate Authority
- 7 General purpose and/or application-specific
- 1 PowerSchool Production
- 1 PowerSchool Test
- 1 RADIUS
- 1 SQL Server 2012
- 1 SCCM Current version
- 1 Web Server
Linux based virtual servers include:
- 1 FreePBX
- 1 Mail Archiver
- 2 Zen Load balancers
Other Virtual servers:
- 1 Windows 7 32-bit
- 1 vCenter Appliance
- 1 Disused Remote Desktop Services
The Division has a separate physical Windows Server 2012 R2 server with Veeam Backup and Replication 6.5 backing up all virtual machines onto a NetGear ReadyNAS NAS daily. Backups are copied offsite weekly and offline/offsite copies are rotated monthly.
Requirements of the Successful Vendor
- Vendor will provide all hardware, components, and software specified in the proposal to Lakeshore School Division on or before April 30th, 2019.
- The intent of the technical specifications for the server and server storage system is to obtain the highest quality system. Vendors should select their best of breed product for consideration.
- A final acceptance notice will be signed when all hardware and is 100% satisfactorily tested and working to the standards of Lakeshore School Division, within 30 days of receiving the hardware.
Vendor Questionnaire
Mandatory Qualifications
Vendors responding to this proposal must provide the following affirmations and information:
- Appropriately trained staff to respond to phone call inquiries
- Vendor should not have a record of sub-standard work
- Vendor shall disclose any related party affiliations
Vendor Financials
The Division may require from Vendor pertinent financial information in enough detail to verify the Vendor’s financial stability.
The Division may require from Vendor pertinent support information in affirmative way to verify that appropriate resources are available during and after implementation of the solution.
Vendor Background
Provide an overview of your company, including its history, products, benefits and accomplishments, number of years in business and core solution offering.
Industry Experience
Describe your company’s experience with servers, SAN storage and switching solutions that you are proposing.
Proposed Server and Server Storage Solution
Provide an executive summary of the system being proposed. You may provide proposals for any or all elements of this RFP.
Please attach an itemized printout/list of component parts making up your server and server storage solution.
Please indicate if your company offers trade-in credits for our existing systems.
Vendors must supply all monthly/yearly maintenance costs associated with support and licensing fees.
Warranty and Repair
Describe the warranty program including the standard warranty and any extended warranty coverage available for the proposed solution.
Acknowledgement
Submittal of a proposal implies that the contract will be completed with everything properly installed as stated in the proposal specifications. It will not be the intent of the proposal specifications to set forth in detail every item necessary for the construction of the project. It will be assumed that the vendor is qualified for performance on this contract and that the vendor must, without direction, furnish and install everything necessary to complete the project in a manner acceptable to Lakeshore School Division. The vendor needs to provide a project plan and implementation schedule that demonstrates consideration of all relevant existing infrastructure components and software systems that will be or may be impacted by this work.
The vendor further acknowledges that in submitting this proposal, it is required to respond to all applicable questions posed by Lakeshore School Division in the proposal specifications and any related documents.
By signing the proposal form below vendor agrees to all requirements and acknowledges terms and conditions set forth herein:
Company Name:
Representative Name:
Representative Signature:
Representative Title:
Date:
Representative Email:
Representative Phone Number:
