RFI_2023_360.pdf

State of New Hampshire

NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

BUREAU OF PURCHASE AND PROPERTY

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE PROCESS OF CLOUD INTERCONNECT

PROVIDER SERVICES

2023-360

DUE DATE: 07/13/2023 at 09:00 AM (EST)

RESPONSE SUBMITTED BY (COMPANY NAME)

AUTHORIZED SIGNER’S SIGNATURE ________ _______________________

AUTHORIZED SIGNER’S TITLE __________ ______________

PRINTED NAME __________ ______________

PREPARED BY: Claudia Roy

THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

BUREAU OF PURCHASE AND PROPERTY

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

A. PURPOSE

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued by the New Hampshire Department of

Administrative Services, Bureau of Purchase and Property.

This Request for Information has been issued with the intent of gathering information relative to the process of establishing a contract for Cloud Interconnect Provider Services for the State of New Hampshire.

The State’s objective is to evaluate Cloud Interconnect Provider Services industry and fortify the State’s current process and contracts. Items will include, but will not be limited to the commodities, service or equipment herein.

B. TIMELINE

The timeline below is provided as a general guideline and is subject to change. More exact dates will be added to the later processes as the project moves forward.

o 06/29/2023 Issue of RFI o 07/10/2023 Last day for questions, clarifications, and/or requested changes to RFI o 07/13/2023 09:00 AM (EST) RFI Opening

C. BACKGROUND

The State of New Hampshire is soliciting a request for information for connectivity to our business partners in the cloud. There are a growing number of State agency applications now being hosted in the cloud or collocating with a cloud provider.

D. OBJECTIVE

The State of New Hampshire has the following objectives:

In support of State agency application requirements, as well as fast-paced future I&O needs for IT, the State is request information for Cloud Interconnect partner to "aggregate" connectivity to multiple Cloud providers, providing the State agencies a high performance and quickly scalable solution for both virtual and direct connections to cloud partners. Ideally, the vendor would act as an extension of our network and be able to comply with all State of New Hampshire network connectivity and data center standards and policies.

The State of New Hampshire operates a Metropolitan-Area-Network (MAN) in the City of Concord, NH using a combination of leased and owned fiber optic cable. State of New Hampshire locations outside of the Concord, NH main facility connect via multiple wide-area networks using various technologies including Carrier Ethernet Services, Microwave Wireless and VPN Tunnels over the Internet. State Agency Networks have varying levels of integration and connectivity to the statewide core for resource sharing and centralized administration by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT). State agencies connect to the State’s central core network location in Concord, NH to facilitate access to e-mail, the Internet, and the State’s financial applications.

For Internet Services the State of New Hampshire has purchased thru ARIN its own External IP Address Range and Autonomous System Number. The State advertises External IP Space and Autonomous System Number to two different Internet Service Providers to provide failover in the event of a single ISP network failure. Consolidated Communications is currently the State’s primary provider.

REQUIREMENTS

Security Traffic encryption Distributed Denial of Service Mitigation Private Connectivity

Compliant with the following standards: NIST 800-53, ISO 27001, PCI-

DSS,

and HIPAA, CJIS, FedRamp

Redundancy Dual, diverse paths from the vendor’s point of presence

Performance Minimum of 99.99% uptime

Credit for unavailability of service below uptime SLA, latency issues, packet delivery

If Vendor recommends placing edge devices in one of their geographically key located Data Centers to improve the speed/performance of their circuit(s) Vendor will need to provide receipt of equipment recommended, power/ping, rack/stack, private/secure rack space, and physical rebooting of equipment if this option is needed.

State to provide equipment to be placed in rack.

Ability to increase bandwidth and provision ports within 10 business days

Circuits must have less than 120 milliseconds of roundtrip latency at all times

Connections Capability to support hybrid Cloud architectures

Existing connectivity with Cloud and IT Services such as: Google, AWS, Azure, BOX, Oracle, and Salesforce

Assistance brokering circuit connection between State of New Hampshire’s Primary Data Center located in Concord, NH and location of Vendor’s Data Center location

Capability to broker meetings and conversations with existing service providers on our behalf

Willingness to work with State of New Hampshire to provide connection to

Cloud Providers that vendor currently doesn’t possess Ability to connect to Azure ExpressRoute, direct connect to AWS, Oracle FastConnect

Software defined network provisioning to providers via portal

Connection types/design will be determined by application and can be either layer 2/layer 3 logical connection(s)

Unlimited port availability

1GB and 10GB connections, with ability to aggregate multiple connections for additional capacity

The logical circuits provisioned by application should be able to be “tuned” to any speed based on the need of the application

Provide IP Address management as required

Portal Access Provide web portal to build, maintain and monitor connections

Support of Multi Factor Authentication Ability to provide alerts

Ability to report on usage, packet loss, and performance of connections

24x7x365 Access

Automated provisioning providing scalability to increase bandwidth as needed on demand

Support 24x7x365 Help Desk Support Ability to call in or email a trouble ticket

Alerts when services are degraded

Escalation Support (24x7x365):

Priority One: Service is unavailable Response time: 15 minutes Resolution time goal: 1 hour (worked on 24x7) Status Updates every hour

Priority Two: Service performance is seriously degraded Response time: 30 minutes Resolution time goal: 2 hours (worked on 24x7) Status Updates every hour

Priority Three: Service performance is slightly degraded Response time: 24 hours Resolution time goal: 24 hours Worked on during standard day business hours Status updates every 4 hours

Incident Report within 5 business days of incident

The service must be provided so that routine maintenance procedures, troubleshooting, loading hardware and software revisions, patches, etc., may be performed without disrupting State of New Hampshire Services

Initial training on use of tools and connectivity configuration to cloud providers

Online documentation and videos providing step-by-step guide to building and maintaining connections and use of customer portal

KEY PERSONNEL

Vendor must provide the following key personnel:

• Account Representative

• Project Manager – For initial implementation

• Senior Technical Engineer – For initial implementation

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Vendor shall assign an Implementation Resource or Project Manager, to work with State of New Hampshire Project Manager, during the testing and implementation phases utilizing the following structure:

a. Introductory Meeting: Participants will include the Vendor’s Key Project Staff and State Project leaders from the Department of Information Technology. This meeting will enable leaders to become acquainted and establish any preliminary Project procedures.

b. Kickoff Meeting: Participants will include the State and the Vendor’s Project Team and major stakeholders. This meeting is to establish a sound foundation for activities that will follow.

c. Weekly Status: Participants will include the State and Vendor’s Project Team and major stakeholders. This meeting is to insure up-to-date project status as well as catch any issues before they advance.

d. The Work Plan: Must be reviewed at least weekly and updated

e. Special Meetings: Need may arise for a special meeting with State leaders or Project stakeholders to address specific issues.

SENIOR TECHNICAL ENGINEER

The Vendor shall assign a Senior Technical Engineer, to work with State of New Hampshire Technical Resources, during the design, configuration, testing and implementation of one cloud partner circuit of the State of New Hampshire’s choice:

a. Assist the State and the Project Managers to establish the detailed Work Plan

b. Assist the State’s technical resources with implementation of required system components

c. Assist the State’s technical resources assigned to the Project with design and configuration of the selected cloud partner circuit

d. Provide the State’s technical resources with knowledge transfer of build and configuration of the selected cloud partner circuit

e. Assist the State’s technical resources with the testing of the selected cloud partner circuit

f. Assist the State’s technical resources with performance and Acceptance Tests of the selected cloud partner circuit

g. Assist the State’s technical resources with troubleshooting issues with the selected cloud partner circuit

h. Assist the State’s technical resources with the implementation of the selected cloud partner circuit

IMPLEMENTATION, TESTING, AND ACCEPTANCE

Vendor Senior Technical Engineer shall work with State of New Hampshire Technical Engineer to determine installation of any required equipment, software, and to build, configure, test, and provision first connection to a State of New Hampshire cloud which will be to the AWS Gov Cloud location at Ashburn, VA. Remote services to assist in implementation are acceptable, would prefer on-site.

• Solicit respondent information to assist the State in preparing an RFP

In response to this RFI, the State seeks responses from Cloud Interconnect Provider Services.

Respondents are encouraged to provide feedback if they believe that the structural and operational features

The State is seeking feedback on the information in this RFI and will consider any information, including partial responses, received in response to this RFI. If the State moves forward in the development of an RFP/RFB. The bidding process will be open to all respondents regardless of their decision to participate in this RFI.

E. KNOWN CHALLENGES

• Please see Objectives section.

F. LIABILITY

This solicitation for information does not commit the State to publish a Request for Proposal or award a contract. The State shall not be held liable for any costs incurred by the Vendor in the preparation of the response. The issuance of a Request for Proposal/Bid as a result of information gathered from responses is solely at the discretion of the State.

G. CONFIDENTIALITY

The State retains the right to promote transparency and to place this RFI into public domain and to make copy of the RFI available as a provision of New Hampshire access to public records laws. Please do not include any information in your RFI response that is confidential or proprietary, as the State assumes no responsibility for excluding information in response to records requests. Any request for information made by a third party will be examined in light of the exemptions provided in the New Hampshire access to public record laws.

H. PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF BID OR PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS:

Generally, the full contents of any proposal (including all materials submitted in connection with it, such as attachments, exhibits, addenda, and vendor presentations) become public information upon completion of final contract or purchase order negotiations with the selected vendor. Certain information concerning proposals, including but not limited to scoring, is generally available to the public even before this time, in accordance with the provisions of NH RSA 21-G:37.

Confidential, commercial or financial information may be exempt from public disclosure under RSA 91-A:5, IV. Any and all information contained in or connected to a bid or proposal that a Bidder considers confidential shall be clearly designated in the following manner:

If the Bidder considers any portion of a submission confidential, they shall provide a separate copy of the full and complete document, fully redacting those portions by blacking them out and shall note on the applicable page or pages of the document that the redacted portion or portions are “confidential.” Use of any other term or method, such as stating that a document or portion thereof is “proprietary”, “not for public use”, or “for client’s use only”, is not acceptable. In addition to providing an additional fully redacted copy of the bid submission to the person listed as the point of contact on Page one (1) of this document, the identified information considered to be confidential must be accompanied by a separate letter stating the rationale for each item designated as confidential. In other words, the letter must specifically state why and under what legal authority each redaction has been made. Submissions which do not conform to these instructions by failing to include a redacted copy (if required), by failing to include a letter specifying the rationale for each redaction, by failing to designate redactions in the manner required by these instructions, or by including redactions which are contrary to these instructions or operative law may be rejected by the State as not conforming to the requirements of the bid or proposal. Marking or designating an entire proposal, attachment or section as confidential shall neither be accepted nor honored by the State. Marking an entire bid, proposal, attachment or full sections thereof confidential without taking into consideration the public’s right to know shall neither be accepted nor honored by the State.

Notwithstanding any provision of this request for submission to the contrary, proposed pricing shall be subject to public disclosure REGARDLESS of whether or not marked as confidential.

If a request is made to the State by any person or entity to view or receive copies of any portion of a proposal, the State will assess what information it believes is subject to release; notify the Bidder that the request has been made; indicate what, if any, portions of the proposal or related material shall be released; and notify the Bidder of the date it plans to release the materials. To halt the release of information by the State, a Bidder must initiate and provide to the State, prior to the date specified in the notice, a court action in the Superior Court of the State of New Hampshire, at its sole expense, seeking to enjoin the release of the requested information.

By submitting a proposal, Bidders acknowledge and agree that:

(i) The State may disclose any and all portions of the proposal or related materials which are not marked as confidential and/or which have not been specifically explained in the letter to the person identified as the point of contact for this RFP;

(ii) The State is not obligated to comply with a Bidder’s designations regarding confidentiality and must conduct an independent analysis to assess the confidentiality of the information submitted in your proposal;

and

(iii) The State may, unless otherwise prohibited by court order, release the information on the date specified in the notice described above without any liability to a Bidder.

II. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS

A. RESPONSE PACKAGE, DESTINATION AND DEADLINE

Interested parties may submit a response to the State of New Hampshire Bureau of Purchase and Property by email to NH.Purchasing@das.nh.gov. All responses must be clearly marked with the RFI number, date due and the Purchasing Agent’s name.

Note: We cannot accept files larger than 7 MB.

IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES EMAILING YOUR RESPONSE OR YOU WISH TO

VERIFY THAT YOUR RESPONSE HAS BEEN RECEIVED, PLEASE CALL (603) 271-2201 AND ASK A

PURCHASING ASSISTANT FOR ASSISTANCE OR TO CHECK ON THE STATUS OF YOUR RESPONSE.

B. INQUIRIES

All questions concerning this RFI must be submitted in writing to Claudia.I.Roy@das.nh.gov by 09:00 AM local time on the date indicated in Section

1.2 TIMELINE. Answers will be posted on the Bureau of Purchase & Property website as an Addendum. Phone calls will not be accepted.

Please be sure your questions are clearly stated and include your name, company name and a phone number. (Only the questions will be published as addenda.)

III. RESPONSE CONTENT

A. Respondents are requested to furnish the following as part of their response:

1. The business name, address, place of business, contact information, including representative name and alternate (if available), telephone number(s), and e-mail address(es).

2. Summary of the respondent’s business and its experience as it related to the services outlined in the RFI.

3. List of references for which you are currently providing Cloud Interconnect Provider Services. Include current contact information.

4. Brief description of respondents proposed solutions, and how these would best meet the Department’s objectives. The description should also identify known or potential concerns with, or barriers to, the solutions.

mailto:NH.Purchasing@das.nh.gov mailto:Claudia.I.Roy@das.nh.gov

B. The response to this RFI should address the following:

1. Describe your pricing for Cloud Interconnect Provider services, if applicable.

2. Attachment 1 Completed

3. What other information would you desire that the Department provide to assist you with your submittal of a proposal if an RFP were to be issued?

IV. CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

A. The State of NH has a growing number of State agency applications now being hosted in the cloud or collocating with a cloud provider.

V. CLOSING

The State of New Hampshire, Department of Administrative Services thanks you for your efforts in preparing a response. Although this Request for Information does not require the State to issue a Request for Bid/Proposal or to award contracts, the information gathered in this process will be helpful in determining whether to move forward with Cloud Interconnect Provider services and if so how we may best structure a contract to reach our goals.

VENDOR CONTACT INFORMATION:

Please provide contact information below for a person knowledgeable of and who can answer questions regarding your response.

Contact Person Telephone Number

E-mail Address Vendor Company Name

Vendor Address

IV. CURRENT ENVIRONMENT