17 171 Provision of a High Bandwidth and Low Latency Cloud Access Connection

Tender description

We are looking for a Direct Ethernet point to point link with the options of a single and/or resilient circuits capable of delivering bandwidths between 1Gbps and 10Gbps up and down gradable between 1Gbps, 2Gbps, 5Gbps & 10Gbps between our datacentre (Kelly House, Minerva Avenue, Chester, CH1 4QL) to a Microsoft UK Peering Location (Cloud Exchange). The Peering Point to the Cloud should be capable of allowing us to access services provided by Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google etc. Initially we will be connecting to Microsoft Azure at a bandwidth of 1Gbps. Our high level requirements are as follows: • Ability to provide variable bandwidth capability to match capability of the peering point provider (1Gbps, 2Gbps, 5Gbps & 10Gbps) • Require ability to increase and decrease bandwidth • Minimal distance dependent charges • The Provider to be the single billing entity for the circuit & the cross connects • CEC ICT Services would prefer run our own BGP routing strategy • We believe a layer 2 Ethernet Point to Point Circuit to a Microsoft UK Peering Location is the most appropriate solution, but are willing to take advice from the provider on this (see Fig 1 & 2 on Cloud Quality Requirements Spreadsheet) • Ability to provide Point of Presence cross connects to any public cloud provider • Ability to provide near real time performance monitoring • Ability for the circuit to Peak Burst over the contracted bandwidth • Ability to provide detailed reporting capabilities • Amount of data transferred • Trend analysis • SLA reporting inc uptime, circuit latency and jitter • Security Reporting Keywords: Cloud, Access, Connection, High Bandwidth, Low Latency