MetSIS(S)-Op Server & Storage

Tender description

Summary of the work A technology and accreditation demonstrator project to provide foundation and specialist meteorological services to defence customers via OGC Web Services. Data input and access from network is being delivered through separate projects. This project is extending existing discovery/alpha trials capability based upon the Met Office’s experience of NATO CWIX events. Expected Contract Length 3 months Latest start date 21 November 2016. Why the Work is Being Done Historically the Met Office provide a range of meteorological and oceanographical services to its clients via either pushing raw data to its customer’s sites, or the customer pulls data or services via the internet using HTTPS from dedicated interface. With the massive increase in data volumes becoming available from the Met Office’s supercomputer and satellites these are no longer satisfactory to some customers. The Met Office therefore wishes to provide a trial system where there is a single point at Met Office Exeter where all available data and services can be securely accessed through OGC Web Services from one system. Problem to Be Solved Design, build, install, configure and accredit the minimum necessary Hardware: • EAL6 cabinet with il6 locks • 1 x server and storage, (100TB as indicative for pricing), • 1 x hardware firewall. • Networking etc Capable of supporting the building of accreditable images, configuration management and deployment of: o operating systems (Linux) o specific software applications and components (to include applications already developed). o additional system management applications and configuration, (open source), applications. System data inputs of up to 2Gbpss at peak loading, data output max 10Mbps. IT Health Check from approved supplier will also be required. Who Are the Users Met Office & MoD Accreditors users need..... as a user I want system design, operating system, patches, AV, new software components, firewall configurations, IP tables etc. deployed and managed in an efficient, auditable and accreditable manner. Met Office systems/service managers users need... O/S & Application patches, Anti Virus updates, new software components, firewall configurations, IP tables etc. deployable and supportable in an efficient, auditable manner with minimum Met Office staff manual effort. Work Already Done The Met Office has participated in a number of NATO and MoD interoperability exercises and has an accredited foundation technology demonstration system that can provide a working example of what is trying to be achieved. Existing Team Programme SRO, Programme Manager, Project Manager, Security Assurance Coordinator, Secure Systems Design Authority, internal Solution Architects (Software & Infrastructure). Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Current List-X Supplier • Demonstrate experience of GOV.UK's design patterns and styles • Ability to provide examples of similar project delivery within the UK MoD defence environment • Specific examples of experience and ability to work to JSP480 and JSP604 requirements • Demonstration of experience leading on technical solution design • Demonstration of experience in build and installation of secure IT systems • Demonstration of ability to successfully liaise with other parties to ensure successful delivery • Industry standard technologies to be used • Demonstration of acting as lead supplier of sub-contractor and/or supplier partnering Nice to Haves • Automated configuration management • Containerisation/Virtualisation technologies Work Location Construction primary location must be at an appropriately secure facility owned/managed by the supplier due to limited space available within the Met Office but final installation must be at Met Office Headquarters in Exeter. Working Arrangments Progress reports to Met Office Project and/or Programme manager fortnightly and stage boundaries. Design and configuration proposed plans to Met Office IT Design Authority and Accreditors for review and evidence of compliance to these during/after build. Occasional site inspections and progress demonstrations. Security Clearance Security clearance is minimum SC, higher would be desirable for those team members required to have aggregated knowledge of system design and software configuration. Met Office reserve the right to inspect the assembly facility security arrangements. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • The proposed technical solution • Ability to demonstrate experience of operating and co-ordinating delivery in a UK MoD environment • Demonstration of value for money of the proposal Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers and Accreditors • Work as a project within a programme of other projects in delivering programme outcomes. • Have experience of successfully working with MoD ISS and DAIS Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Does the technology demonstrator need to show how Business Continuity would be achieved (is this required to achieve accreditation for example)? Is the equipment expected to be locked away and run “lights out” or is there an expectation of a “Met Manager” user community processing the raw feed into product? What are the security aspects of the design – for example, will a Threat Assessment, SAL etc be provided to inform the design or is the solution un-constrained? (E.g. What is the security classification of the live service? Is there a need for security separation within the service?) "1/ A SAL & TL will be part of design considerations.2/ There is currently no requirement to have different trust zones within the MetSIS(S) system.3/ Business Continuity for the first demonstrator instance will be a nearly ""lights out"" minimum,, with system checking by support staff perhaps once per week & reported faults being dealt with working hours Mon-Fri when staff available and no higher priority work scheduled.4/ There will be no ""'Met Manager"" processing inbound data." 2. From which systems will the services be accessed over that / those networks? How many users are envisaged (concurrent and total)? Who will administer the capability, and from what location? Is base virtualisation (or cloud) service required as part of the installed hardware? What are the availability requirements? Where will accounting data be collected, and what in what form does it need to be provided? Are there software components that need to be integrated to support this? What are the size weight and power limitations for the GFE computer facility in Exeter that the capability must fit within? Answer Part 1 of 2:1/ System will be accessed from an MoD S network.2/ Number of users / concurrent users not yet known but initially not expected to be more than 10 concurrent users however this may rapidly scale up as customer user community sees the capability of the system.3/ System administration will be done by Met Office staff at Exeter. 3. From which systems will the services be accessed over that / those networks? How many users are envisaged (concurrent and total)? Who will administer the capability, and from what location? Is base virtualisation (or cloud) service required as part of the installed hardware? What are the availability requirements? Where will accounting data be collected, and what in what form does it need to be provided? Are there software components that need to be integrated to support this? What are the size weight and power limitations for the GFE computer facility in Exeter that the capability must fit within? Answer Part 2 of 3:4/ Base virtualisation or containerisation is required but MetSIS will not be on an MoD or other cloud.5/ Availability requirements haven't been specified by customer, but for initial technology demonstrator system it will be; If it falls over it will only be fixed working Mon-Fri office hours if staff available and don't have higher priority work. 4. From which systems will the services be accessed over that / those networks? How many users are envisaged (concurrent and total)? Who will administer the capability, and from what location? Is base virtualisation (or cloud) service required as part of the installed hardware? What are the availability requirements? Where will accounting data be collected, and what in what form does it need to be provided? Are there software components that need to be integrated to support this? What are the size weight and power limitations for the GFE computer facility in Exeter that the capability must fit within? Answer Part 3 of 3:6/ 'Accounting' data will be collected as part of the system, (standard H/W performance and user access & data requests etc for forward planning), provided in any industry standard. Software components for this monitoring will be up to supplier to provide & demonstrate best practice in system monitoring and ALM planning.7/ Weight and Power limitations are expected for initial system to be 1 or 2 secure cabinets in Met Office Exeter IT Workshop, this will then move to IT Halls when full resilience requested by customer, (expected to be in 1 or 2 years). 5. What is the governance model for the capability? How will service issues be input and communicated with the supplier? "1/ Governance model will be proposed by supplier and taken into account when Met Office assesses first and second round bids.2/ Service issues will need to take into account DAIS & ISS requirements." 6. Is the 100TB storage just for online disk storage or does this figure also include backup storage? Is all the 100TB of storage required up front or can the storage be delivered incrementally? How much data will need to be loaded onto the new storage system and by what mechanism will that data be loaded (DVD/Blu-Ray/LTO tape/Copied over network)? What’s the software licencing model? Will all software licences be GFE or will the contractor need to supply the licences for system management applications? What network(s) will the capability connect to? Answer Part 1 of 2:"1/ The 100TB storage has been calculated as follows: 100TB RAID5 ~= 50TB; 2 x 'sets' of Virtual Machines, (Primary, 'Hot' Backup & Pre-production), to allow patching and application upgrade without taking system off line ~= 16TB per 'instance'. 2/ Currently data is ~=6TB Observations & Forecast per 24 hours, no more than 24 hours kept on system, rest of space to be available for satellite data.3/ It is planned that the data will be transferred to system via 2 x 1GBPS EAL7+ Data Diodes, (this is a separate project within the MetSIS(S) Programme. 7. Is the 100TB storage just for online disk storage or does this figure also include backup storage? Is all the 100TB of storage required up front or can the storage be delivered incrementally? How much data will need to be loaded onto the new storage system and by what mechanism will that data be loaded (DVD/Blu-Ray/LTO tape/Copied over network)? What’s the software licencing model? Will all software licences be GFE or will the contractor need to supply the licences for system management applications? What network(s) will the capability connect to? Answer Part 2 of 2:4/ It is expected that the supplier will use Open Source software wherever possible as this is UK Government policy. Some specific applications, (specialist meteorological ones), will be provided by and licensed by the Met Office.5/ The system will connect to the Met Office Central Data Network, (CDN), via EAL7+ Data Diodes and via a Point of Presence, (PoP), to an MoD S network. 8. As a web services in a NATO context, is there an expectation of integration with the NATO ESB? Assuming servers will be virtualised. What is the VM technology Hyper-V or ESXi? What are the operating systems and versions used? How many VMs are there and what are the VM requirements (RAM/CPU/HDD/IOPS for each VM)? Does the Met Office solution already include backup software or does the contractor solution need to provide this? Does the Met Office solution already include anti-virus software or does the contractor solution need to provide this? Answer Part 1 of 2:1/ Currently the requirement is not to integrate with NATO ESB but it is expected that this will become a requirement in future years.2/ Virtualisation in the Met Office is currently done using ESXi software but if the supplier can provide an equivalently effective and accreditable Open Source software or Containerisation solution will be seen as a differentiator.3/ It is expected that the O/S will be Linux. The Met Office currently uses and has support arrangements for RHEL7. 9. As a web services in a NATO context, is there an expectation of integration with the NATO ESB? Assuming servers will be virtualised. What is the VM technology Hyper-V or ESXi? What are the operating systems and versions used? How many VMs are there and what are the VM requirements (RAM/CPU/HDD/IOPS for each VM)? Does the Met Office solution already include backup software or does the contractor solution need to provide this? Does the Met Office solution already include anti-virus software or does the contractor solution need to provide this? Answer Part 2 of 2:4/ Number of VMs, it is expected that there will be approximately 7 VMs per instance, (API Gateway, Apps server, TDAv3 DB, VisWx1, VisWx2, Sys Log, System Mgmt), and 3 instances, (Primary, ""Hot"" Backup and Pre-production).5/ The supplier will be required to provide Configuration Management, Change Management and Build Management as well as any necessary backup management software. It is envisaged that this will be Open Source software.The Met Office currently uses Sophos anti virus software and would expect to supply this through our existing enterprise licensing model.