Tender

Early Market Engagement - Enterprise Backup & Service Continuity solutions

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

TenderUpdate

10 Oct 2022 at 08:37

Planning

28 Sep 2022 at 15:07

Summary of the contracting process

The University of Exeter has initiated a procurement process for "Early Market Engagement - Enterprise Backup & Service Continuity solutions" in the goods category. The University is seeking a vendor with expertise in providing similar services, and the deadline for responses has been extended to 14th October 2022. Interested parties can engage via the University's eTendering portal, with key contact details available. The procurement process is currently in the planning stage, offering potential business growth opportunities in the field of backup or recovery software solutions.

This tender presents an opportunity for businesses specialising in backup or recovery software packages to partner with the University of Exeter. Interested vendors with proven experience in delivering enterprise backup and service continuity solutions are encouraged to participate. The University aims to leverage this early market engagement activity to inform its formal business case and procurement process, providing insights into market capabilities and available solutions. The call for responses includes the submission deadline of 14th October 2022 and the prospect of subsequent face-to-face discussions during October 2022, creating a conducive environment for businesses catering to disaster recovery services and data storage solutions.

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Notice Title

Early Market Engagement - Enterprise Backup & Service Continuity solutions

Notice 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.

Lot Information

Lot 1

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. Additional information: Attached as document

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-036c44
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028356-2022
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Planning, Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Planning Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support


CPV Codes

48710000 - Backup or recovery software package

72120000 - Hardware disaster-recovery consultancy services

72212710 - Backup or recovery software development services

72251000 - Disaster recovery services

72317000 - Data storage services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
10 Oct 20223 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
9 Jan 2023Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planned
Lots Status
Planned
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Contact Name
Simon Denton
Contact Email
s.denton@exeter.ac.uk
Contact Phone
+44 1392723333

Buyer Location

Locality
EXETER
Postcode
EX4 4QH
Post Town
Exeter
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLK South West (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLK4 Devon
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLK43 Devon CC
Delivery Location
TLK South West (England)

Local Authority
Exeter
Electoral Ward
Duryard and St James
Westminster Constituency
Exeter

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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