RFI for Enterprise WAN Final.pdf

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Request for Information (RFI) Enterprise Private Wide Area Network

August 8, 2025, FDIC-DOA-2025-002

1. Purpose and Objectives

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) requests information to obtain a better understanding of contractors and trends in the market, to include the latest capabilities and offerings as the FDIC considers implementing a new, multi-year (10- to 15-year) Enterprise Private Wide Area Network (hereby referred to as FDIC WAN or Enterprise WAN) contract. This new potential contract is anticipated to provide geographically diverse colocation services, highly available and redundant telecommunications services, internet connectivity, and cloud connectivity. The following are high level objectives the Enterprise WAN should support.

a. Colocation Services

b. Backbone Connectivity

c. Regional & Area Office Connectivity

d. Field Office Connectivity

e. Internet Services

f. Cloud Connectivity

In addition to this RFI, the FDIC may, at its discretion, conduct additional market research engagements.1 Importantly, the FDIC is not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the FDIC may make planning and procurement decisions based on responses to this RFI.

Therefore, responding to this RFI–while voluntary–is the best way for a company to let the FDIC know it has interest in being considered for the Enterprise WAN requirement.

2. Background

The FDIC WAN has evolved into a colocation and interconnection platform providing the FDIC distributed scale and security. The backbone consists of a dedicated private network infrastructure leveraging seven (7) “hub” locations across the continental United States.

Additional services include highly available and redundant office connectivity for Data Centers, (DC), Regional Offices (RO) and Area Offices (AO) via provider and path diversity, highly available office connectivity for Field Offices (FO) via provider and path diversity, colocation services at each “hub” location, distributed internet connectivity, and private cloud connectivity.

As mentioned above and illustrated in Figure 1, the FDIC WAN backbone consists of seven (7) “hub” locations. Each “hub” location consists of multiple colocation cages with fully redundant power and UPS including backup generators leaving no single point of failure. FDIC provides Government Furnished Equipment (GFE), i.e. routers, switches, and firewalls, within each cage and is ultimately responsible for the architecture and design, deployment, operations, and maintenance. All seven (7) “hub” locations are connected via 10G circuits. Circuit redundancy is achieved via multiple carriers and geographical diversity.

1 The FDIC reserves the right to meet one-on-one with all, some, or one of the RFI respondents.

Figure 1: Provider Hub Backbone

Four (4) of the seven (7) “hub” locations provide geographically distributed services, such as internet and cloud connectivity (shown in table below). This configuration allows the user access to the closest “hub” location for connectivity ultimately decreasing latency and offering an improved user experience. Cloud connectivity consists of private, low latency connectivity to major commercial cloud providers using their native private interconnection services. This connectivity should not rely on public internet unless encrypted. Additionally, this cloud solution must support dynamic scaling and multi-cloud integration without re-architecture.

Internet connectivity is provided by the vendor (via multiple carriers for highly available and redundant services). Internet services are burstable where possible and comply with Trusted Internet Connection (TIC 3.0) use cases.

Cloud and internet connectivity should provide direct, private, and secure local connections at the four (4) hub locations and not extended via circuits or other backhaul methods.

Table 1 – Connectivity of Hub Locations

City State Backbone Connectivity

Distributed Connectivity

Internet Connectivity

Cloud Connectivity

Ashburn VA Yes Yes (East) Yes Yes

Atlanta GA Yes No No No

Chicago IL Yes Yes (North) Yes Yes

Dallas TX Yes Yes (South) Yes Yes

Denver CO Yes No No No

New York NY Yes No No No

San Francisco CA Yes Yes (West) Yes Yes

Key Considerations:

Realism of Transition Timeline Estimates: The FDIC’s strong desire for this RFI is to obtain accurate and executable assessments of transition timelines to inform future requirements. As such, the FDIC seeks realistic estimates that account for real-life risks and delays. The rationale for any estimated transition timelines that are well below industry standards should be explained in the vendor’s RFI response.

Interdependencies: While the existing FDIC WAN architecture meets the FDIC’s current and future needs, transitioning to a new service provider with minimal business impact can be complex and time consuming due to interdependencies of services. Examples of potential inter-dependencies include the following:

• Equipment will need to be configured, shipped, and deployed at colocation facilities;

• Circuits cannot be ordered until both the a/z locations of the circuits are identified which requires the colocation space to be identified;

• Circuit cross-connects often require onsite consultation and coordination, and in certain circumstances, demarcation equipment may need to be updated, or construction may be required;

• Business applications or services with internet or cloud dependencies require thorough planning and coordination to minimize business impact;

• IaaS/PaaS/SaaS services will require thorough planning and coordination to minimize business impact.

3. RFI Response Instructions

• Questions about this RFI are due no later than 2:00 p.m. (ET), on August 18, 2025.

• Responses to this RFI are due no later than 2:00 p.m. (ET), on September 8, 2025.

• All questions and responses should be emailed to the Contracting Officer: Christina V.

Brooks at chrbrooks@fdic.gov. All submissions will receive a confirmation email within 72 hours. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please follow up with the Contracting Officer.

• Emails related to this RFI should include a subject line titled “(insert Company Name) - FDIC Enterprise WAN RFI Response.”

• RFI responses are limited to 12 pages measuring 8.5 by 11 inches, in either PDF or Word format. File size should not exceed 5MB. The page limit is inclusive of all pages, cover pages, table of contents, figures, etc., except that the information about third-party security audits requested in question number 7.2 may be provided in a separate file or appendix, and does not count against the page limit for RFI responses.

• Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized to the extent possible and must be clearly marked.

• RFI responses should be generally organized as follows, acknowledging that Sections 1, 2, and 3 may be combined or overlap to some extent:

Response Section 1 - Company Overview

1.1 Provide company name, DUNS number, and the name, phone number, and e-mail address(es) of designated point(s) of contact(s) for the RFI response.

1.2 Provide address of your headquarters, and any local contact address (if different than the HQ address).

1.3 Provide a brief description of your company, services, business size (revenue, employees, customers), and a list of manufacturer/reseller partnerships that your company maintains and the type of partnership (e.g., service/solution provider, value-added reseller, etc.).

Response Section 2 - Vendor Company Profile and Capabilities

2.1 Describe your company’s profile relating to its ability to provide Enterprise WAN.

2.2 Provide capabilities and knowledge that best describe and distinguish your company as an industry leader providing private Enterprise WAN services.

Response Section 3 - Existing Federal Implementations of Enterprise WAN

3.1 Provide a list of Federal contracts where you are currently providing the Enterprise WAN capabilities (Please identify relevant information to communicate size, scope, and complexity of the implementation, as well as your company’s specific role).

3.2 Provide examples of any non-federal contracts where you are currently providing the Enterprise WAN capabilities (Please identify relevant information to communicate size, scope, and complexity of the implementation, as well as your company’s specific role).

3.3 Please provide a customer Point of Contact with whom we can engage to discuss the implementation of your Enterprise WAN capabilities in a Federal environment.

Response Section 4 - Transition of Services

4.1 Have you supported transitions where you replaced an incumbent vendor while maintaining continuity of services? If yes, describe your approach.

4.2 What is your standard approach for transitioning Enterprise WAN services from an incumbent vendor while ensuring minimal disruption.

4.3 What is the typical timeframe and sequence for migrating core components of Enterprise

WAN infrastructure (e.g., circuits, routers, security controls)?

4.4 Please provide a high-level schedule for transitioning from the current FDIC environment to your solution.

4.5 What would be the key milestones in your implementation plan and what is the estimated duration for each?

4.6 How do you mitigate risk during dual operations phases or coexistence with legacy systems?

4.7 How do you handle delays or unexpected changes during the transition?

4.8 Have you completed transitions for clients in regulated environments (e.g. financial, healthcare, etc.)? If so, please provide examples.

4.9 If awarded a contract by the FDIC in 2026, what would your ideal transition plan and key milestones look like? What would the timeframe look like for a typical migration?

Include environmental assumptions/information (e.g. private network, 80+ sites, bandwidth requirements, minimum speed requirements, etc.)

4.10 What are the critical success factors you would need FDIC to fulfill to enable a timely and efficient transition?

4.11 What staffing, tools, or methodologies do you provide to support knowledge transfer and cutover planning?

4.12 What risks are most common in projects like these and what successful contingency plans have been used in previous transitions to mitigate the risks?

Response Section 5 - Circuits & Cross-Connects

5.1 What is your approach for establishing connections in rural or hard to reach areas and working with local area providers? Please provide examples of past experience.

Response Section 6 - Contract & Cost Options

6.1 What contract vehicles or pricing models do you typically use for federal customers (e.g.

BOA, BPA, fixed price, consumption based)?

6.2 What has been the most effective contract structure to facilitate a successful implementation?

6.3 What cost drivers most significantly impact Enterprise WAN projects in the first 3 years of service?

6.4 How do you propose managing cost transparency over a 10-year term, including ceiling management and usage forecasting?

6.5 Please provide a summary of all one-time and recurring costs.

6.6 Are there any additional costs not included in your base pricing (e.g. third-party integration)?

6.7 Do you offer different pricing tiers or volume-based discounts?

6.8 Please describe your approach to cost increases over time, including any escalation clauses.

Response Section 7 - Security & Compliance

7.1 What compliance frameworks do you adhere to (e.g. SOC 2, IOS 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP, etc.)?

7.2 Do you undergo third-party security audits? If so, please provide details or summaries of recent results. (Such summaries or details may be provided in a separate document and do not count against the response page limit).

7.3 What is your process for vulnerability management and patching?

7.4 How do you handle data breaches and how soon are customers notified?

Response Section 8 - Service Level Agreements (SLA)

8.1 What is your guaranteed facility uptime for colocation services?

8.2 What SLAs apply to power availability and redundancy?

8.3 What are your SLAs for cooling and environmental controls?

8.4 What is the provisioning SLA for cross-connects?

8.5 What is the guaranteed uptime for cross-connect and interconnection services? Does this differ by physical vs. virtual connections?

8.6 Do you have latency, packet loss, and jitter guarantees for connectivity?

8.7 What is your Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) for interconnection outages?

8.8 Is there an end-to-end SLA for connectivity from colocation cage to the cloud on-ramp?

Response Section 9 – Opportunity for Additional Feedback

9.1 Please feel free to include in this section of your RFI response any feedback on the

FDIC’s requirements or other recommendations the FDIC should consider when contracting to meet Enterprise WAN,

4. Additional Notices

• The FDIC is a government corporation and agency of the federal government. Congress created the FDIC under the Banking Act of 1933 to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system. The FDIC receives no Congressional appropriations and is funded by premiums that banks and savings associations pay for deposit insurance coverage. The FDIC also has independent statutory authority for entering into contracts, 12 U.S.C. § 1819(a). The FDIC, and this RFI, are not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Instead of the FAR, the FDIC uses the FDIC’s Acquisition Procedures and Guidance Manual.

• “THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future.

• This request for information does not commit the FDIC to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. This RFI does not obligate the FDIC to issue a solicitation or RFP, to contract for services, and your firm’s response does not guarantee inclusion of your firm on any potential future solicitation list.

• The FDIC is not seeking proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals.

Do not provide any proposed pricing information; you may provide dollar values of the other Federal contract examples where your company provides Service Desk services.

• The FDIC will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the respondent’s expense.

https://www.fdic.gov/formsdocuments/apgm.pdf

Appendix A: FDIC Office Locations