2001-25 Cloud Services

The Hartford Housing Authority in Connecticut is soliciting Cloud Hosting Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions through Request for Proposal 2001-25, with an anticipated annual budget of $150,000. The procurement encompasses provisioning, configuration, and management of a secure, scalable cloud infrastructure environment to support the Housing Authority's core business applications, user access, and data storage needs across five distinct server roles: Domain Controller, Application Server, SQL Server, File/Print, and Remote Desktop Services supporting up to 50 concurrent users. All work must be performed remotely with no on-site presence required, and the selected vendor must provide comprehensive infrastructure capabilities including compute resources, storage, networking, security features, monitoring and maintenance, backup and recovery services, and technical support. Key requirements include hosting all production data, backups, and logs within the United States with no offshore data hosting permitted unless formally approved in writing, U.S.-based personnel for system administration and monitoring, and compatibility with the Housing Authority's existing Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses, Microsoft Active Directory, SQL Server systems, and SonicWALL firewalls (NSA 2700 and TZ470). Vendors must propose industry-standard Recovery Time Objective and Recovery Point Objective recommendations with justification, implement firm fixed-price pricing structures (with tiered or usage-based options if clearly defined), and include discovery and knowledge transfer activities in their transition plans due to unavailable incumbent transition documentation. The solicitation opened December 4, 2025, with a vendor question deadline of January 8, 2026, at 2:00 PM EST and a proposal due date of January 22, 2026, at 2:00 PM EST. Evaluation criteria emphasize vendor experience with enterprise-grade cloud services, security and compliance capabilities, FedRAMP compliance standards, cost savings potential, scalability, automated maintenance, disaster recovery capabilities, and integration ease with existing systems.

No set-asides or restrictions limiting the types of organizations eligible to respond have been identified in the procurement documents. The incumbent vendor for the previous contract was Novus, which managed an annual budget of $120,000; however, transition documentation from this vendor is not currently available. Key personnel experience and references are acceptable in place of company-level references for proposal submissions. Subcontractors are permitted but require prior approval from the Hartford Housing Authority and must meet the same insurance, experience, and compliance standards as the prime contractor. The Housing Authority's existing infrastructure includes one internet circuit per location, SonicWALL firewalls, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium deployments; vendors must demonstrate compatibility and integration capabilities with these systems and be prepared to address Azure subscription ownership responsibility, standard invoicing and payment terms, and flexibility regarding multi-factor authentication solutions beyond the specified Duo implementation. Service credits or penalties for Service Level Agreement failures are not currently defined but may be proposed by vendors. The contract term is three years with optional extensions available.