CCCS RFP 15-008 Disaster Recover/Bus Continuity

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) issued Request for Proposals 15-008 for a multi-year disaster recovery and business continuity system solution serving 13 statewide colleges and the Lowry Campus, protecting critical enterprise systems including Banner (ERP), Microsoft Exchange email, and Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity for approximately 145,000 students and 10,000 employees. The procurement seeks qualified contractors to provide colocation of redundant systems, real-time data replication, failover capabilities with recovery time objectives not exceeding four hours, and annual testing of disaster recovery and business continuity procedures, with core systems operational by June 30, 2015, and all remaining systems deployed by December 1, 2015. The vendor must establish a colocation facility within 150 miles of Denver, Colorado, providing server hardware, SAN storage, network infrastructure, space, power, and connectivity while CCCS retains management of applications, operating systems, and databases; the solution must support recovery of 44 Banner servers and 16 Exchange servers from a total environment of approximately 330 servers with approximately 123 TB of total storage capacity and 18,000 user mailboxes with zero data loss and instantaneous recovery. Required qualifications include Cisco Powered Service Provider certification, 10 Gbps redundant connectivity with physical diversity using ASR1000 or ASR9000 series routers, facility specifications with N+1 minimum power and cooling redundancy, 24/7/365 physical security monitoring, carrier-neutral network access with multiple data circuits, and comprehensive project risk management capabilities; bidders must be registered with the Colorado Vendor Self Service (VSS) system and provide corporate profile, facility specifications, data transfer and failover processes, and client references. The evaluation committee will assess proposals based on business and technical experience (35 percent weight), failover process capability (25 percent), facility specifications (20 percent), and project risk management (20 percent), with references evaluated on a pass/fail basis. The pre-proposal meeting was held on December 15, 2014, via in-person and WebEx conferencing, with proposals due on January 9, 2015, at 2:00 PM Mountain Time in sealed packages containing one original plus ten copies and one electronic copy submitted to the CCCS Purchasing Office at 9101 E. Lowry Boulevard, Denver, Colorado.

No set-aside designations or restrictions on organization types are specified in this solicitation, and no incumbent vendors are identified, indicating this is an open competition opportunity. The contract will be awarded for an initial term of one year with options for four additional one-year renewals, subject to Colorado state funding approval and appropriation, with a maximum total contract duration not to exceed five years. All work product, equipment specifications, and materials developed become the property of the CCCS upon completion, and the vendor must obtain and maintain all required licenses, certifications, and insurance, including commercial general liability and automobile liability insurance with minimum limits of $1,000,000, with CCCS named as an additional insured. Pricing proposals must address data volume, data type, recovery time scenarios, equipment ownership models, and costs for testing, failover invocation, and ancillary services, with the State required to pay undisputed invoices within 45 days of receipt. No specific budget or award value range is disclosed in this procurement; however, the scope encompasses comprehensive infrastructure hosting and disaster recovery services for a large, multi-campus community college system. The existing WAN infrastructure and network topology, as documented in the provided WAN diagrams (Exhibits A and B), serve as the baseline for integration with the proposed redundant ring connectivity solution, requiring vendors to assess compatibility and implement seamless integration with the incumbent system architecture.