Infrastructure and Cloud Platforms Support- Data Services & Analytics

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done DSA have an established on-premise data centre and have commenced migration of a number of services to the public cloud. This work is designed to primarily support: data centre BAU support, continued development and cloud migration and automation. The service required is to complete the cloud transition alongside other design and build work from other teams. During transition the Supplier must maintain both the physical and cloud infrastructure until transition is concluded, third quarter 2020. Knowledge must be transferred to and retained by Home Office and other partners. The supplier will provide ongoing support for cloud after transition is complete. Problem to Be Solved DSA operate a number of secure, data intensive services using: GreenPlum, BigMatch, Oracle, physical networks, SAN storage; cloud: Redshift, Kubernetes, EC2, Kafka, S3. Code assets include Python and Java. The security requirements are OFFICIAL with extensive SENSITIVE content. Though significant cloud migration has been completed, some remains in the data centre, to be safely migrated. The data centre is of the order of hundreds of servers and terabytes storage. There are numerous product and support teams already in play with blended civil service and supplier participants. Agile methods are used in line with GOV.UK Technology Code of Practice as usual. Who Are the Users Internally you will directly engage Developers, Technical Architects, DBA’s, Delivery and Product Managers. Externally users are from various Home Office departments including Home Office enterprise service managed infrastructure. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done On-premise data centre supporting a mix of developer, data science and data engineers has been established for 4 years. Work has been conducted which has resulted in an accredited cloud platform. The work has resulted in a number of large systems being migrated and undergoing transition into live service. Existing Team The team consists of 8 multi skilled resources, providing a blended mix of experienced traditional data centre and cloud skills. The team is moving off from Jan to March 2020. Current Phase Beta Work Location Work will be carried out from a Home Office location primarily in Croydon as required and in Suppliers offices. Working Arrangments The team will work to agile principles and methodologies in step with other teams. Work will be tracked and monitored on Jira and Confluence. Adherence to DSA and HO security governance and standards is mandatory. Expenses outside the M25 will be payable in accordance with the Home Office Travel (no Subsistence) policy. The team will work from the base location as required, Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:00. Participation in stand-ups, planning sessions, show & tells and retrospectives as required. 24 by 7 on-call support arrangements may be introduced during the contract duration. (separate rate card). Security Clearance Minimum of SC level security clearance. Additional T&Cs Statements of work will be agreed periodically with the supplier on a fixed price, capped, or T&M basis with agreed deliverables. Standard DOS framework and call-off terms and conditions. Resources cannot charge more than 100 working days in any consecutive 6 months or more than 200 days in a year. Expenses outside the M25 will be payable in accordance with the Home Office Travel (no Subsistence) policy. Skills & Experience Proven experience of both on-premise and cloud security design to OFFICAL level with significant SENSITIVE content, or equivalent; holding required gravitas to engage senior security accreditors 10% Proven experience maintaining physical infrastructure including firewalls, network switches, SAN and servers in a complex environment 10% Proven experience migrating from physical environments to AWS cloud solutions including dual running transition periods and decommissioning 10% Proven experience designing, continuously deploying and operating significant AWS infrastructures in multi-team environments, including availability and protective monitoring 10% Proven experience delivering services to GOV.UK Technology Code of Practice principles, or equivalent, in a large public organisation or ones of equivalent scale 5% Nice to Haves Experience designing, deploying to and operating Kubernetes clusters with Java and Python payloads 7% Experience designing and operating Redshift databases including during DMS data sync and dual running 7% Experience designing and operating S3 stores and Kafka streaming solutions 5% Experience of deployment and management on Cisco based Unified Compute Systems 5% Experience of design, build, testing and diagnosis across a range of Microsoft server products 3% Experience of design, build, testing and diagnosis of Windows & Linux authentication and authorisation products 3% Experience of on premise storage systems - SAN capacity planning and monitoring, specification, installation and administration 5% On-premise backup systems hardware and software solutions design, build, testing and diagnosis across range of popular supplier solutions 5% Relevant professional certification for the technologies outlined within the organisation and proposed team 5% Third line support arrangements for 24 by seven support of infrastructure and services 5% No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 4 Proposal Criteria Technical skill and ability Mobilisation approach Proposed team and CVs Value for money and commercial flexibility Cultural Fit Criteria Ability to work collaboratively and effectively in a multi-supplier environment. Be innovative and promote ideas and suggestions as applicable. Ability to provide knowledge-transfer and share best practice. Ability to maintain a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes. Blend quickly and efficiently into existing working methodology, whilst promoting and implementing continual improvements to raise delivery level maturity required for live services. Have excellent communication skills with staff at all levels of the organisation. Willing to take responsibility for their work. Focus on achieving value for money in all activities. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range fixed price time and materials capped time and materials £1000 (exc vat) day rate cap to apply. responses to include maximum billed day rate. shortlisted suppliers to propose flexible approach to delivering a value for money, with a proposed fixed price for a period of 24 months, for an initial 8 fte, as a guide. no minimum volume commitment.