UW Madison Data Center RFI (002).docx

Request for Information - Data Center Services

About the University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison, the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin (UW) system, is a public land-grant university and prolific research institution (UW–Madison ranked eighth for total research expenditures among U.S. universities in 2023 according to Higher Education Research and Development (HERD)). Founded in 1848, as Wisconsin achieved statehood, its 936-acre campus sits between Lakes Mendota and Monona. Fall 2024 enrollment across the eight schools and colleges topped 52,000 and over 21,000 faculty and staff serve the student body. Student and faculty populations are broadly diverse and multicultural.

UW–Madison supports multiple core missions with unique computing and data requirements including research, instruction and outreach plus administrative support.

One of the longest and deepest traditions surrounding the University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Idea signifies a general principle: that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Synonymous with the UW for more than a century, this “Idea” has become the guiding philosophy of university outreach efforts in Wisconsin and throughout the world.

Current State of Data Center Services on Campus UW–Madison Information Technology (IT) has federated operations, with a central IT unit providing core data center services leveraged by distributed IT units and upwards of 90 other data center or “data center like” facilities distributed on and off campus within a 20-mile radius. The 150 plus IT shops on campus vary widely in size and scope. UW–Madison also has additional responsibilities to the Universities of Wisconsin encompassing 13 comprehensive universities and associated branch campuses.

The range of data center hosting environments are technologically diverse in terms of power and cooling capacity, network connectivity, availability and resilience. Off-campus facilities are a combination of commercial colocation and State of Wisconsin resources. Computational loads range from low density, high availability mission critical administrative systems, to high density, high throughput research systems that can tolerate lower availability ratios to save infrastructure cost. We anticipate the majority of our future growth to be in the research systems category.

UW–Madison is subject to many data protection requirements including FISMA, HIPAA, PCI, Select Agent, CUI, CJIS, and GDPR, with future plans to adopt CMMC.* *(Federal Information Security Modernization Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Controlled Unclassified Information, Criminal Justice Information Services, and General Data Protection Regulation, Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification.)

Current Campus Data Center Technical Environment

· ~ 1 megawatt (MW) of hosted hardware with approximately 1 MW additional distributed across campus

· Current rack power densities ranging from 10kW to 20kW

· Future research compute power densities are estimated at 50 kW to 70 kW per rack

· HVAC via CRAC, Hot aisle containment, chimney systems

· 3x400 gigabit (Gb) fiber optic circuits via two diverse paths (6x400 Gb total)

· Multiple data protection and policy regimes

· 2-factor access control with provisions for biometric factors

· Rack level access control

Driving Forces and Desired Capabilities

The University of Wisconsin – Madison would like to contract for data center colocation facility services for hosting a growing portfolio of high-density research computing, mission critical administrative services and a diverse array of other UW School, College, and Divisional hosts. This space (or spaces) is envisioned as a shell capable of hosting an initial power load of approximately 2.5 MW in the first three years with ability to scale up to approximately 5 MW within 5-10 years. Rack power densities are anticipated to range initially from between 10-20kW to upwards of 50-70kW or more within a decade. Cooling technology is expected to include traditional air to air and direct liquid cooling. Options for space and power scaling, and guaranteed future capacity, are of interest and should be part of the information provided, ideally with right-of-first-refusal for space adjoining the primary environment. Time to solution delivery proposed should also be included in the response.

Equipment to be housed in this facility includes a range of server, storage and backup devices requiring a varying level of access by pre-qualified university employees.

We also require the provisioning of securable separate space located in a data center facility. The space to be occupied by the University of Wisconsin needs to be separated from other occupants in the data center. Separation at the rack level is generally agreed to be adequate for most hosting requirements but options for greater compartmentalization and segregation of space from other tenants should be described (e.g. Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility - SCIF, secure sub-enclosure - fence or similar, etc.).

As this request is for shell space, the University of Wisconsin will provide racks and cable management within the space but will entertain vendor provided options at our discretion. Proposed data centers will need to allow UW to extend their wide area network to the facility and in-room networking within the rack space environment. A secure loading dock and staging area will be required to aid relocation and installation of campus computing infrastructure. In-facility conference/meeting space is desired to aid work planning and any disaster recovery processes involving systems located in the proposed data center. Systems and network monitoring and management will be provided by the existing UW-Madison service. It is desirable to have facility event information available to the UW service to aid operations management.

A prime consideration for us is the proximity of the data center colocation space to the main UW-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin. Research systems have historically operated within a 10-mile radius of the main campus, benefiting from low network latency, and their sensitivity to increased distance is unknown. However, we realize that expanding our search radius beyond Madison increases the likelihood of securing the necessary space and power, potentially at reduced costs and with more sustainable energy sources. Increased distance may impose additional strain on personnel and applications. We acknowledge this trade-off and are keen to learn from your customers’ experiences in similar situations.

For data center colocation facilities, we want to better understand your capabilities for providing “remote hands” and similar services for the purposes of accepting equipment shipments, unboxing, installing in the rack, connecting power and data, and performing other routine maintenance and repair activities at the direction of authorized UW-Madison employees.

We are open to solution providers that would need to construct or renovate facilities to meet our needs and need to understand the likely lead time from contract award to facility availability. Please address this possibility under Section 2, Physical Site Location below. Please note that all services and locations must physically reside within the United States.

Duration Securing data center colocation facilities that meet our needs is a long-term investment for the university. We anticipate an initial term of up to 15 years.

Note: This is not a bid or request for proposal. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Responses to this RFI are not an offer and cannot be accepted by the State to form a binding contract.

The university may issue a Request for Proposal after review of the RFI responses.

In responding to this RFI, please describe your recommendations for meeting the needs described above, and please include the following information:

1. Organization information:

1.1. Company name

1.2. Address

1.3. Website

1.4. Contact name

1.5. Telephone/mobile number

1.6. Email address

1.7. Office locations

1.8. Founding date

1.9. Management team (names, titles)

2. Physical Site Location

2.1. Where are your facilities located? For each candidate location, describe its proximity to major interstates, airports, and nearby municipalities.

2.2. Please detail the total capacity of this facility: total square footage, compute area square footage, number of customers housed (names, if you can provide), total power/energy capacity, etc.

3. Network

3.1. Please describe how you would provide 3x400 Gb circuits (from carriers who service your data center) via two diverse paths (so 6 x 400 Gb total capacity), that would be physically diverse (i.e., carried on fiber routes that don’t cross) and also have equipment diversity (i.e., a single “core” router in the telco providers network wouldn’t take down all circuits on both physical paths).

3.2. Describe how you would offer direct connectivity to public cloud service providers (Google, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.)?

4. Security Services

4.1. Indicate the last date of your SOC 2 audit as to your organization’s system or process certifications with date of issue.

5. Infrastructure

5.1. What is the tier rating for the proposed facility? Is this as certified by the Uptime Institute, or a “tier equivalent”? If equivalent, please provide a summary description that supports the tier rating. Please break your response down by individual components (UPS, generators, etc.) if necessary.

6. Environmental Sustainability

6.1.1. Describe your sustainability roadmap. Include sources and available quantities of renewable energy, facility water consumption, your average PUE targets and any price differentials for taking advantage of renewable resources.

7. Power

7.1. What is the overall power available to this facility?

7.2. For Mission Critical Loads Requiring High Availability

7.2.1. Describe how you will accommodate typical density compute loads (10-20 KW per rack) that require “Tier 3/4” levels of power redundancy. Describe your current available contiguous capacity and expected available future capacity at this level.

7.3. For High Density Loads Requiring Lower Availability

7.3.1. Describe how you will accommodate high density compute loads (25-50+ KW per rack) that do not require power redundancy. Describe your current available contiguous capacity and expected available future capacity at this level.

8. Environmental Controls

8.1. Describe the range of rack power densities (kW per rack) you can support with current air-cooling technology.

8.2. For High Density Loads Requiring DLC

8.2.1. Describe the range of rack power densities (kW per rack) you can support with DLC (direct liquid cooling) technology if available.

8.2.2. Describe how you will accommodate compute loads that have integrated liquid cooling and require an external coolant source. Describe your current available contiguous capacity and expected available future capacity with this capability.

9. Additional Services

9.1. What provisions are there for managed services above and beyond remote hands? Do you provide higher orders of technical sophistication (i.e. Smart Hands)?

9.2. How do you support distant customers with high-frequency, high-touch requirements?

10. Pricing

10.1. Please explain your standard pricing model (e.g., per sq ft, per kW all in, space plus power, etc.)

10.2. Are you offering metered power? Explain how, including any uplift for cooling, etc.

10.3. How large or small of a chunk of capacity can we purchase at a time (i.e. fractional racks up to dedicated data halls or whole facilities?)

10.4. Remote Hands/Smart Hands

10.4.1. What number of touches per month are included for free?

10.4.2. What is the basic rate per hour/unit increment?

10.4.3. Do you offer a differential price structure for Remote Hands vs Smart Hands (basic labor vs skilled labor).

10.5. Network

10.5.1. Provide pricing for requested fiber solutions detailed in the Network Section.

UW Madison Purchasing Manager: Caleb Hall

ISSUED DATE: 10/25/2024

DUE DATE: 11/24/2024 2:00 PM CT

Email completed RFI responses to caleb.hall@wisc.edu Note: This is not a bid or request for proposal. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Responses to this RFI are not an offer and cannot be accepted by the State to form a binding contract.

State of Wisconsin Department of Administration

DIVISION OF ENTERPRISE OPERATIONS

DOA-3027 (R07/2014)

s. 19.36(5), Wis. Stats

Return form to:

STATE BUREAU OF PROCUREMENT

101 E. WILSON ST., 6TH FL

P. O. BOX 7867

Madison, WI 53707

DESIGNATION OF CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

The attached material submitted in response to UW Madison’s Data Center RFI includes proprietary and confidential information which qualifies as a trade secret, as provided in s. 19.36(5), Wis. Stats., or is otherwise material that can be kept confidential under the Wisconsin Open Records Law. As such, we ask that certain pages, as indicated below, of this bid/proposal response be treated as confidential material and not be released without our written approval.

Prices always become public information when bids/proposals are opened, and therefore cannot be kept confidential.

Other information cannot be kept confidential unless it is a trade secret. Trade secret is defined in s. 134.90(1)(c), Wis. Stats. as follows: "Trade secret" means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique or process to which all of the following apply:

We request that the following pages not be released.

Section

In the event the designation of confidentiality of this information is challenged, the undersigned hereby agrees to provide legal counsel or other necessary assistance to defend the designation of confidentiality and agrees to hold the state harmless for any costs or damages arising out of the state's agreeing to withhold the materials.

Failure to include this form in the bid/proposal response may mean that all information provided as part of the bid/proposal response will be open to examination and copying. The state considers other markings of confidential in the bid/proposal document to be insufficient. The undersigned agrees to hold the state harmless for any damages arising out of the release of any materials unless they are specifically identified above.

Authorized Representative

Signature

Type or Print

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