Amendment 2_QA_2025-04-07_IT Disaster Recovery.pdf

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WASHINGTON STATE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS (AOC)

#2025-04-07

REQUEST FOR QUOTE AND QUALIFICATIONS

AMENDMENT #2

DATE: April 25, 2025 TO: #2025-04-07_IT Disaster Recovery FROM: Casey Walker, Solicitation Coordinator SUBJECT: Amendment No. 02:

Questions and Answers

Question 1: Has a total budget range been established or approved internally for this project? If so, can that information be shared with bidders to better tailor proposals?

Answer 1: No

Question 2: Will the AOC consider providing a not-to-exceed cost cap for the total contract value (including optional services and extensions)?

Answer 2: No

Question 3: Are there any anticipated funding limitations or constraints during the initial 5-year performance period?

Answer 3: No

Question 4: Is funding guaranteed for the entire initial contract period, or is it contingent on legislative or internal approvals?

Answer 4: Guaranteed.

Question 5: The RFQQ requests a tiered fee schedule. Can AOC provide:

• Specific tiers it expects to see (e.g., based on usage, service levels, equipment scale)?

• Any preferred pricing model (e.g., fixed, usage-based, subscription)?

Answer 5: AOC does not have a preferred format. The AOC is requesting the vendors submit their pricing models for these services.

Question 6: Will price escalation clauses be accepted or should the annual cost include pre-built escalations?

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Answer 6: AOC has sized our request to span the contract duration. We expect to see increases if additional items are added to contract and reductions if items are removed.

Question 7: Is AOC open to alternative pricing models, such as cost-plus or milestone-based pricing?

Answer 7: Perhaps, if the RFQQ response is complete.

Question 8: Are bidders allowed to submit volume discounts or multi-year prepayment options?

Answer 8: The bidders are to submit pricing for the initial term of the Contract and AOC is allowed to pay for services on an annual basis. AOC can not pay for services more then a year in advance.

Question 9: Can AOC clarify expectations around:

• Mainframe services pricing, especially if not all bidders can offer this?

• Rack space and dedicated infrastructure — should costs be based on fixed resources or scalable use?

Answer 9: Bidders should bid on the mainframe services requests if they’re able. Rack space and dedicated infrastructure resources should be fixed cost.

Question 10: For optional services, will AOC prioritize cost efficiency, or should bidders focus more on flexibility and responsiveness?

Answer 10: Flexibility, responsiveness, and cost are all factors that will be considered.

Question 11: Is there a current incumbent contractor providing disaster recovery or cold site services for AOC?

Answer 11: Yes

Question 12: If so:

• Who is the incumbent?

• Will their contract and performance be considered in the evaluation of new proposals?

• Is the incumbent eligible to rebid?

Answer 12: 11:11, no, yes.

Question 13: What aspects of the incumbent’s performance does AOC aim to maintain or improve upon?

Answer 13: This is a new contract for a cold site per the requirements provided, not an extension so no performance will be maintained or improved upon.

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Question 14: The RFQQ states cost will be “evaluated but not scored.” Can you clarify how AOC defines and applies “best overall value” in this context?

Answer 14: Each submission will be scored on how well requirements of the RFQQ were met. That score along with the cost provided will assist in determining the best overall value.

Question 15: Will AOC provide a cost comparison summary or rationale post-award, especially for bidders who participated in pricing discussions?

Answer 15: Bidders will have the ability to request a debrief upon announcement of Apparent Successful Bidder to review their bids.

Question 16: In reference to RFQQ #2024-04-07, would the AOC entertain an alternative disaster recovery solution involving a fully hosted cloud environment with Inoapps' redundant backup infrastructure?

Answer 16: Perhaps, if the RFQQ response is complete.

Question 17: For the servers, do we need to have an internal DVD tray or will an external DVD tray be viable?

• What is this media being used for and can other immutable media be considered?

Answer 17: Our current process includes loading host OS images via CD/DVD. We would like to retain this ability and integrated DVD players are preferred for this over USB connected devices.

Question 18: Also for the servers, we have USB 3.0, and the specs say USB 2.0, will this be viable for this project?

Answer 18: USB 3.0 is sufficient as it is backwards compatible with 2.0 and it provides higher RW speeds.

Question 19: For the workloads, do we need to support a 100% recovery of the existing or is there a RPO with an RTO?

Answer 19: Bidder should provide the cold site. AOC is responsible for recovering 100% of the existing environment to our RPO and RTO objectives.

Question 20: We also would like to know the fiber channel speeds if possible?

Answer 20: We do not have Fiber Channels at our DR site. Our equipment uses 10 Gbs or 1 Gbs Ethernet SFP connections.

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Question 21: For the mainframe, can you please provide the type and qty of specialty engines, Cryptos, additional peripherals required for MF operations.

Answer 21:

Specialty Engines:

2 Crypto Express7S (2 ports each) 2 z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) for DB2 Workloads

Additional Peripherals:

Disk Storage Equipment:

IBM 2834-984 (DS8880) Enterprise Storage Server Configured as 3390 CKD Model 3, 9 and 27 (Total 10 TB) 2 16 Gb SW FCP/FICON Adapters (4 ports each) 1 64 Gb Processor Memory

Disk Library Equipment:

Luminex Disk Library for Mainframe (We have 1 Production unit and 1 DR Unit)

Question 22: For the network appliances, ie checkpoint firewall, big ip load balancer and cisco switch, are there any special feature licenses required?

Answer 22: Cisco DNA Advantage licenses for BGP routing, F5 we have Local Traffic Manager (LTM), Application Security Manger (ASM) and Application Visibility Reporting (AVR) Licenses, All CheckPoint Blades are used (Firewall, Application Control, Threat Prvention etc)

Question 23: ISP services are mentioned, do you require the vendor to provide internet services? If yes, do you require internet always on or/and at time of test or disaster? In what speed(s)? How many IP addresses or utilize existing /26 or better?

Answer 23: The Internet Services provided by the vendor is just for Console or RDP access to the Hosted equipment. We have a replication circuit and another circuit dedicated to a connection to the Washinton State Government Network provided by WaTech.

Question 24: Is There a Compliance requirement?

Answer 24: insufficient information to provide an answer.

Question 25: What does Cold site mean?

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Answer 25: AOC is looking for a secondary location designed for system recovery after a disaster, featuring basic infrastructure like power, cooling, and network connectivity, and bare-metal hardware where we can set up operations and remote into in the event of a disaster. AOC is responsible for installation of systems software, configurations, and data restoration.

Question 26: Would you be interested in Hosted Private Cloud?

Answer 26: Perhaps, if the RFQQ response is complete and security can be guaranteed.

Question 27: Would you be interested in Public Cloud?

Answer 27: Perhaps, if the RFQQ response is complete and security can be guaranteed.

Question 28: Is this just Colo?

Answer 28: We have dedicated equipment that will be onsite as a Colocation. We will need some Network resources and servers on demand as laid out in the RFQ.

Question 29: Do you want a managed DRaaS?

Answer 29: Perhaps, if the RFQQ response is complete and security can be guaranteed.

Question 30: Is this a combined virtual and physical host environment?

Answer 30: If this question pertains to server infrastructure, then the answer is no. We rely on physical hosts for our virtual environment.

Question 31: Windows licensing brought by the state?

Answer 31: If applicable, yes.

Question 32: VMware licensing brought by the state?

Answer 32: If applicable, yes.

Question 33: Zerto licensing brought by the State?

Answer 33: If applicable, yes.

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Question 34: VMware Environment

• Number of compute requirements – vCPU, vRAM

• Storage replication ?

Answer 34: Server hardware requested is the only requirement for the bid.

Question 35: Network bandwidth?

Answer 35: We will have dedicated circuits for our Data Replication and connection to the Washington State Government Network ISP WaTech. From our dedicated network rack to our recovered network we’ll require at last three 10 Gbs links. All to connections to servers will be 10 Gbs as well.

Question 36: 20% year over year growth on storage or compute?

Answer 36: Not expected. We will bring our own storage and expect to be able to manage the growth on our own. For server infrastructure, we may need to add hosts periodically, however this is expected to be infrequent.

Question 37: RTO/RPO times seem longer than modern IT requirements. are you planning on restoring from Backups, replicating storage or using Zerto?

Answer 37: Restoring from backups.

Question 38: The reference to “subscription” seems like the state is looking for a public cloud?

Answer 38: This is in reference to the cost of services for the IT Disaster Recovery Site, and how the bidder and AOC reviews the services being used by AOC and adjusted cost accordingly.

All other terms and conditions in this Informal Request for Proposal remain the same.