Vendor Questions B-51131 IT v.2.docx
DOCX document 31 KB Posted
- Attached to
- Managed Database Services Reissue IFB
- Solicitation number
- 26-551HDA-LEGAL-B-51131
- Issued by
- Cook County, Illinois
About this file
This is a Vendor Questions and Answers document for the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) Managed Database Services Reissue Invitation for Bid (IFB #26-551HDA-LEGAL-B-51131). The procurement seeks a single vendor to provide comprehensive managed database services including 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, support, backup and recovery management, security guidance, performance tuning, capacity planning, patch management, and disaster recovery planning for IHDA's database infrastructure encompassing SQL Server instances (versions 2014-2025), Azure SQL Databases, SQL Managed Instances, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB across both production and non-production environments. The contract has an estimated start date of April 24, 2026, and end date of April 23, 2028, with options for four two-year renewals, resulting in a potential maximum contract term of ten years. IHDA anticipates requiring less than 20 hours of support per week. The bid due date was extended to March 24, 2026, at 12:00 P.M. to account for the question and answer review period. All work will be performed remotely with a hybrid delivery model of offshore and onshore resources permitted; however, offshore resources are not acceptable as primary resources.
The contract is structured on a Time and Materials basis with pricing to be entered in BidBuy under the Items tab; the specific budget will not be shared. This is a new procurement with no previous incumbents or current annual spend. IHDA's current environment includes distributed database systems across Central US and North-Central US Azure regions with All Availability Groups (AAGs) configured for high availability, a 60-minute Disaster Recovery RPO and 8-hour RTO, and Dell/EMC PowerStore for on-premises storage with 10-year backup retention policies and monthly recovery testing. Current incident volumes average 0.5 Severity 1, 1 Severity 2, and 4.25 Severity 3 incidents monthly, with an estimated 10-15 database migrations annually planned during the contract term. Vendors must be registered as a legal entity in Illinois prior to bid submission and are required to submit a completed BEP Utilization Plan demonstrating commitment to the 3% Business Enterprise Program participation goal. General Commercial Liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence with $2,000,000 annual aggregate, Auto Liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence, and Workers' Compensation insurance as required by law are mandatory. The contract may be partially or entirely funded with federal funds, with specific percentages disclosed upon notice of award.
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Other files
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| it-standard-terms-and-conditions-v-25-4.pdf | ||
| IFB IT Offer To The State-v-25-2.pdf | ||
| Managed Database Services IFB Reissue v.25.4_1~1.docx | DOCX document | |
| Invitation for Bid Vendor Instructions and Requirements v.2~2.docx | DOCX document | |
| Pre-Bid Conference Info B-51131~1.docx | DOCX document | |
| Utilization Plan~1.pdf | ||
| IPG Active Registered Vendor Disclosure~2.docx | DOCX document | |
| Vendor Disclosures.docx | DOCX document |
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Text version
Vendor Q & A Managed Database Services Reissue IFB
26-551HDA-LEGAL-B-51131
1. What was the annual spend for the previous year on this Project?
a. N/A, This is a new request, there is currently no annual spend on this project.
2. If this is a new Contract, What is the annual Budget for this?
a. Budget established. Will not be shared.
3. Are you open to a hybrid delivery model with a mix of offshore and onshore resources?
a. Yes
4. Work will be onsite or remote?
a. Remote
5. Can you please give us an extension of 1-2 weeks to submit our proposal?
a. Bid due date extended until 3/24/2026 12:00 P.M. to account for Q & A review.
6. Is this contract intended to be awarded to a single vendor or to multiple vendors?
a. Single vendor
7. Who are previous incumbents on this project?
a. There are no previous incumbents
8. Who is the incumbent vendor currently providing similar services?
a. There are no incumbents.
9. Is the incumbent vendor allowed to participate in this RFP?
a. There are no incumbents.
10. What are the current limitations and challenges that you are facing?
a. Lack of knowledge and experience with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB. We would also like an expert-level resource to consult with for higher-level MS SQL questions.
11. Are any database modernization, upgrades, or migration initiatives planned during the contract term?
a. Yes, there will be some migrations of Azure SQL DB to on-prem MS SQL and vice-versa. These migrations would only occur a few times per year.
12. Could you please confirm whether the contract is expected to be structured as a fixed-price engagement or on a Time & Materials (T&M) basis?
a. Please refer to section 2. Pricing of the IFB also Pricing is located and to be entered in Bidbuy under the Items tab.
13. Could you please confirm the expected number of resources required for this engagement?
a. No specific number of resources. We anticipate needing less than 20 hours of support per week.
14. If a proposed resource becomes unavailable or allocated to any other project at the time of award/project start date, can we deploy another resource with the same/similar experience and skillset?
a. Yes.
15. Is there centralised identity integration (Azure AD, Entra ID)?
a. Yes, Entra ID
16. Are there plans to migrate SQL 2014/2016 to Azure?
a. Yes, and to later editions of MS SQL Server.
17. Can IHDA provide a complete inventory of all database systems and clearly indicate which instances are hosted on-premises and which are hosted in the cloud (including specifying Azure IaaS vs. Azure PaaS for each system)?
a. Yes.
18. Do you expect the vendor to perform any tasks on-site, or can all work be performed remotely?
a. All tasks can be performed remotely.
19. Do you accept offshore resources?
a. No
20. Do you have an estimated project start date and end date?
a. Estimated start date is 4/24/2026 and end date would be 4/23/2028. Contract has an option for 4 two-year renewals.
21. What is the overall budget associated with the project?
a. Budget will not be shared.
22. What was the prior contract’s annual value?
a. N/A
23. What were the primary reasons for reissuing this IFB?
a. Initial scope was too broad.
24. Can you please confirm if “Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate” is a mandatory requirement for this bid?
a. Not mandatory, but highly preferred.
25. Is it mandatory to have our business registered in Illinois before submitting our bid, or can we get the registration done once the contract is awarded?
a. Per B.2 in the Invitation for Bid Vendor Instructions and Requirements document, a person (other than an individual acting as a sole proprietor) must be a duly constituted legal entity prior to submitting a bid and authorized to transact business or conduct affairs in Illinois prior to execution of the contract.
26. [Vendor X] is a women-owned business; however, we do not currently hold formal certification. Please confirm whether we would be eligible to count toward the 3% participation goal, or if only certified women-owned businesses qualify under this requirement.
a. Vendor must be registered as a BEP vendor with CEI to qualify as a prime vendor in the Utilization Plan. See Utilization Plan Part IV: Terms Of Utilization
27. Could you please confirm whether there is a required response format for the technical proposal, in addition to the pricing proposal and required forms?
a. Format is at the discretion the vendors, provided that they include all requirements.
28. Can IHDA confirm the current total number of database servers (physical/VM), cores, storage size (TB), and average DB size distribution (small/medium/large)?
a. No, but number of servers and DBMS instance & version information can be provided.
29. What is the average workload (TPS, batch loads, ETL frequency) on production SQL 2022 instances?
a. Average workloads are very light.
30. Are these hosted within a single Azure subscription/region? Please share region distribution and HA configuration details.
a. No, distributed between Central US and North-Central US regions.
31. Is the 20-hour cap inclusive of 24x7 Severity 1 support? How is effort measured and validated?
a. Current support hours are used to measure and validate.
32. What is the historical monthly volume of Severity 1, 2, and 3 incidents over the past 12 months?
a. Sev 3 (low) - 51
b. Sev 2 (medium) - 11
c. Sev 1 (high) - 6
33. What is the current average monthly ticket volume (Incidents vs Requests) and backlog size?
a. Sev1 - .5/mo, Sev2 1/mo, Sev3 4.25/mo.
34. Please provide current HA architecture details (AlwaysOn, Failover Cluster, Log Shipping, etc.) and DR RPO/RTO targets.
a. All clusters are AAGs. DR RPO is 60 minutes and RTO is 8 hours.
35. Are there known performance issues currently? Please provide baseline performance metrics.
a. No performance issues currently.
36. What is the current patching frequency and standard change window schedule for production?
a. Current patching cycle is development – Monday before 3rd Tuesday, other non-production is 3rd Tuesday, and production is Monday before 2nd Tuesday.
37. Are there any active or planned database modernization, migration, or consolidation initiatives during the contract term?
a. Yes, there will be some migrations from 2014 to 2022. There may be some migrations from Azure SQL DB and Azure SQL Managed Instances to MS SQL Server 2022.
38. Please estimate expected number of migrations/new builds annually for estimation purposes.
a. Annually there will be around 10-15 database migrations.
39. Is there a defined RCA template and timeline expectation? What is the historical frequency of RCA-triggering incidents?
a. No current timeline expectation.
40. Please provide backup retention policies, recovery testing frequency, and storage platform details.
a. Retention policy is 10 years, recovery testing frequency is 1/month, and storage platform is Dell/EMC PowerStore for on-premises servers.
41. Does IHDA expect vendor to perform license compliance audits or only tracking/reporting?
a. Please share current licensing model (Core/SA/Azure Hybrid). Current standards are per core with SA & Azure Hybrid.
42. Does IHDA provide monitoring access (SolarWinds DPA) to vendor or must vendor deploy separate tooling?
a. Yes, IHDA will provide access to SolarWinds DPA.
43. Is there an expected not-to-exceed annual budget range? Will volume growth beyond current scope trigger contract amendment?
a. Budget will not be shared. Yes, an increase in volume growth beyond current cope may result in a contract amendment.
44. What has been the annual growth rate of database instances over the past 3 years?
a. There has been a growth rate of 10 systems over the past 3 years. The number will shrink as we move off our 2014-2017 instances.
45. Is there a projected growth plan (applications, storage, cloud expansion) during the contract term?
a. There is no growth plan.
46. Is DR environment already established, or is vendor expected to design/enhance it?
a. The DR environment is already established.
47. Is there any limitation on offshore subcontracting percentage?
a. N/A
48. Is resolution SLA also defined, or only response SLA?
a. Only response SLA.
49. Will vendor be provided full administrative access to monitoring systems?
a. Yes.
50. Are there existing security audit findings that need remediation?
a. No.
51. What documentation repository or format standards must be followed?
a. N/A
52. Is named resource replacement subject to approval timeline?
a. Yes, the timeline varies depending on contractual term.
53. Are any databases subject to federal compliance (HUD, IRS, FISMA, etc.)?
a. No
54. Do you have full documentation of all the environments under scope?
a. Yes.
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