Server Infrastructure & Management BP 19-T16 RFP No. 24. 2526

Chippewa Valley Schools, a Michigan school district located in Clinton Township within Macomb County, is soliciting proposals through Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 24.2526 for a turnkey Server Infrastructure & Management System under Bid Package 19-T16. The procurement encompasses the complete design, procurement, installation, configuration, and support of new virtual server infrastructure to replace the district's current hyperconverged infrastructure environment. Deliverables include converged or hyper-converged infrastructure equipment from approved manufacturers (Cisco, Dell, or HP), complete rack and cabling installation, migration of 108 existing virtual machines from the current six Cisco HX nodes to the new system, software-defined networking integration, comprehensive staff training (minimum four hours onsite plus 36 additional hours during user acceptance testing), and detailed project documentation. The awarded vendor must provide five years of onsite parts, labor, and software support, along with Nutanix or VMware hypervisor management licensing and support for the same five-year period. The district currently operates a Microsoft-standardized ecosystem with approximately 107.27 TiB total storage capacity containing 45.94 TiB in use, and requires the new infrastructure to support domain controllers, DHCP, print servers, SCCM, Entra, ClassLink AD Sync, climate control systems, and both Windows and Linux operating systems. A pre-bid meeting was held on February 26, 2026; final bidder questions were due by 5:00 p.m. on March 9, 2026; sealed bid proposals are due by 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, 2026; post-bid interviews are scheduled for the week of March 23-26, 2026; board award is expected by May 11, 2026; and project completion is targeted for September 1, 2026, with installation during first shift (8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) and production migrations scheduled for second shift or weekends.

The RFP does not specify set-asides for disadvantaged enterprises, and no restrictions limiting participation to specific organization types are documented in the available materials. The current technology environment includes existing VMware 8.0.2 infrastructure (expiring October 2026) with six Cisco HXAF240C-M5SX nodes featuring 512 GB DDR4 memory per node and 110 TB storage that must be migrated to the new system; the awarded vendor is responsible for removing and recycling all existing hardware according to EPA and DOD standards with applicable equipment credits provided as part of the base bid. Metro Technology Services IT, Inc. is identified as the Technology Designer for this project, which is funded through the district's 2018 Bond Issue. Bid security equal to five percent of the total proposal price is required in the form of a certified check, cashier's check, or surety bond, and bidders submitting proposals of $50,000 or more must furnish Performance and Payment Bonds each in the amount of 100 percent of the contract value through U.S. Treasury-listed companies. The base bid includes a mandatory $30,000 allowance for owner-directed changes, with four alternates covering different hardware and VMware licensing extension options (three and six months), and the contract value is not specified in the available documents, though it is anticipated to exceed $50,000 based on the bond requirements and the comprehensive scope of infrastructure implementation and five-year support services.