IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Tender description

Merseyrail are looking into requirements for an update to their Virtual IT Infrastructure (on premise or cloud) along with provision of disaster recovery (DR) for the new infrastructure. We are looking for expressions of interest, with a view to inviting suppliers to a formal tender process. Introduction: Merseyrail Electrics 2002 Ltd (Merseyrail) is an urban commuter train operating network of vital importance to the transport infrastructure of Liverpool and its environs, operating on the Wirral and Northern lines within Merseyside. It is 1 of the most punctual and reliable railway networks in the UK, with consistently high scores for customer satisfaction. Merseyrail are looking into requirements for an update to their virtual IT infrastructure (VI) (on premise or cloud) along with provision of disaster recovery (DR) for the new infrastructure. We are looking for expressions of interest, with a view to inviting suppliers to a formal tender process. Summary of requirements: Merseyrail currently operate an on-premise VI, based on VMWare ESXi. There are 7 (seven) ESX host servers and 3 (three) DELL EqualLogic storage arrays, all housed in the Merseyrail server room. There are 90 (ninety) virtual servers currently running on the VI, consuming close to 18TB of disk space. More disk space is used on the array to facilitate DR via SRM and for snapshots of the volumes. All of the existing infrastructure is life expired, we are looking at implementing new VI for the hosting of our virtual machines. On-premise, hosted and hybrid solutions will be considered, and any solution must include provision for DR. The keenest RPO and RTO is currently 24 hours for our DR requirements. Any new solution must be able, at a minimum, to host the existing virtual machines and allow flexibility for growth in the future. Any solution would need to be supply (where applicable), implementation and on-going maintenance. Summary of current VI — 3 Dell EqualLogic Storage Arrays (41TB useable space; 18TB Virtual Machines, 9.5TB SRM, 9.5TB Snapshot; 4TB Free), — 7 ESX hosts (Dell Power Edge, 710s; 720s and 740), — 2 Dell SAN switches, — VMWare ESX licenses for the hosts, — VMWare SRM licenses for the DR of the virtual servers, — Veeam Enterprise Plus for backup of the virtual machines. It is anticipated that all the existing physical hardware will be retired, any potential re-use of the licensing would be considered. Next steps: This notice is for information only and not an offer capable of acceptance. We would like to understand market interest, capacity and capability by emailing a response to Paul Murthwaite (pmurthwaite@merseyrail.org). Responses should provide the following: — name, — company, — contact details, — a brief summary of your business and your interest in this opportunity. Once we have a good understanding of interest and we have finalised our specification we will seek to release a selection questionnaire as part of an OJEU tender process. Suppliers who have submitted an interest will be notified when this is released later in the year.