State of Georgia State Entity: Clayton State University Request for Information Event Name: Clayton State University Campus Network Upgrade RFI (Event) Number: ES-RFI-52800-157 1.
Introduction 1.1.
Purpose of Procurement This Request for Information (“RFI”) is being issued to solicit information from interested suppliers with respect to Campus Network Upgrade for the Clayton State University (hereinafter, “the State Entity”) as further described in this RFI. The State Entity will use the information generated by this RFI in conjunction with other information available to the State Entity to determine the solution that it is in the best interests of the State Entity to fulfill this need. Clayton State University is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to determine: 1) possible directions for a future capital upgrade of existing wired and wireless network infrastructure, and 2) potential vendors with holistic solutions to assist with the project. This RFI seeks information from the networking industry for a wireless and wired network upgrade that can seamlessly transmit IP based data, voice, and video to 10,000 faculty, students, and staff. Information shall address the prospect of N-devices per user. The infrastructure must support the educational, business, and operations needs of Clayton State University, its faculty, staff, and students. Contained in the RFI is a description of Clayton State University, and the objectives that Clayton State desires from a network vendor in its next major network upgrade. Clayton State also desires confirmation from the networking industry that Clayton State’s technology planning goals are aligned with industry standards and evolving higher education network technologies and standards.
1.2.
1.3.
A complete description is provided in Attachment A. Overview of the RFI Process The objective of the RFI is to gather information to assist the State Entity in its consideration of available resources/methods to fulfill the need/goal identified above. The RFI method is not a competitive solicitation method and, as a result, does not satisfy the requirement for competitive bidding. The RFI method is no more than an information gathering tool and such information gathered may or may not be used by the State Entity to develop a competitive solicitation. Suppliers are not required to respond to an RFI and a supplier’s failure to respond to an RFI will not prohibit the supplier’s participation in any competitive solicitation that may result from the RFI. However, suppliers are strongly encouraged to respond to RFIs as this is a great way to ensure the State Entity is aware of the suppliers’ available goods and services. Schedule of Events The schedule of events set out herein represents the State Entity’s best estimate of the schedule that will be followed. However, delays to the procurement process may occur which may necessitate adjustments to the proposed schedule. If a component of this schedule, such as the close date, is delayed, the rest of the schedule may be shifted as appropriate. Any changes to the dates up to the closing date of the RFI will be publicly posted prior to the closing date of this RFI. After the close of the RFI, the State Entity reserves the right to adjust the remainder of the proposed dates on an as needed basis with or without notice.
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Description Release of RFI Informational Conference Location: Room 272 James Baker University Center 2000 Clayton State Boulevard Morrow, Georgia 30260 Written Questions must be submitted by Responses to Written Questions Deadline for Submitting Responses
Date Time 07/25/2014 See GPR 08/4/2014 See GPR
08/04/2014 5 p.m. ET 08/08/2014 5:00 p.m. ET 08/22/2014 12:00 p.m. ET
1.4.
Official Issuing Officer (Buyer) Marcia Jones
[email protected]
1.5.
Definition of Terms Please review the following terms: Supplier(s) – companies desiring to do business with the State of Georgia. State Entity – the governmental entity identified in Section 1.1 “Purpose of Solicitation” of this RFI. Any special terms or words which are not identified in this State Entity RFI Document may be identified separately in one or more attachments to the RFI. Please download, save and carefully review all documents in accordance with the instructions provided in Section 2 “Instructions to Suppliers” of this RFI.
2.
Instructions to Offerors By submitting a response to the RFI, the Offeror is acknowledging that the Offeror: 1. Has read the information and instructions, 2. Agrees to comply with the information and instructions contained herein. 2.1.
General Information and Instructions 2.1.1. Team Georgia Marketplace™ Registration System The Department of Administrative Services (“DOAS”) requires all companies and/or individuals interested in conducting business with the State of Georgia to register in the State’s web-based registration system, through Team Georgia Marketplace™. Registration is free and enables the registering company to gain access to certain information, services and/or materials maintained in Team Georgia Marketplace™ at no charge to the registering company. All registering companies must agree to be bound by the applicable terms and conditions governing the supplier’s use of Team Georgia Marketplace™. In the event DOAS elects to offer certain optional or premium services to registered companies on a fee basis, the registered company will be given the opportunity to either accept or reject the service before incurring any costs and still maintain its registration. Companies may register at https://saofn.state.ga.us/psp/sao/SUPPLIER/ERP/?cmd=login 2.1.2.
Submitting Questions All questions concerning this RFI must be submitted in writing via email to the Issuing Officer identified in Section 1.4 “Issuing Officer” of this RFI. Do not use the comments section within the sourcing tool to submit questions to the issuing officer.
2.1.3.
State’s Right to Amend and/or Cancel the RFI
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The State Entity reserves the right to amend this RFI. Any revisions must be made in writing prior to the RFI closing date and time. By submitting a response, the supplier shall be deemed to have accepted all terms and agreed to all requirements of the RFI (including any revisions/additions made in writing prior to the close of the RFI whether or not such revision occurred prior to the time the supplier submitted its response) unless expressly stated otherwise in the supplier’s response. THEREFORE, EACH SUPPLIER IS INDIVIDUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWING THE REVISED RFI AND MAKING ANY NECESSARY OR APPROPRIATE CHANGES AND/OR ADDITIONS TO THE SUPPLIER’S RESPONSE PRIOR TO THE CLOSE OF THE RFI. Suppliers are encouraged to frequently check the RFI for additional information. Finally, the State Entity reserves the right to cancel this RFI at any time. 2.1.4. Costs for Preparing Responses Each response should be prepared simply and economically, avoiding the use of elaborate promotional materials beyond those sufficient to provide a complete presentation. The cost for developing the response and participating in this RFI process is the sole responsibility of the supplier. The State will not provide reimbursement for such costs. 2.1.5.
ADA Guidelines The State of Georgia adheres to the guidelines set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Suppliers should contact the Issuing Officer at least one day in advance if they require special arrangements when attending the Informational Conference. The Georgia Relay Center at 1800-255-0056 (TDD Only) or 1-800-255-0135 (Voice) will relay messages, in strict confidence, for the speech and hearing impaired.
2.1.6. Public Access to Procurement Records Solicitation opportunities will be publicly advertised as required by law and the provisions of the Georgia Procurement Manual. The State Entity is allowed to assess a reasonable charge to defray the cost of reproducing documents. A state employee should be present during the time of onsite inspection of documents. PLEASE NOTE: Even though information (financial or other information) submitted by a supplier may be marked as "confidential", "proprietary", etc., the State will make its own determination regarding what information may or may not be withheld from disclosure. 2.1.7.
2.2.
Registered Lobbyists By submitting a response to this RFI, the supplier hereby certifies that the supplier and its lobbyists are in compliance with the Lobbyist Registration Requirements in accordance with the Georgia Procurement Manual.
Submittal Instructions Listed below are key action items related to this RFI. The Schedule of Events in Section 1.3 identifies the dates and time for these key action items. This portion of the RFI provides instructions regarding the process for reviewing the RFI, preparing a response to the RFI and submitting a response to the RFI. 2.2.1.
RFI Released The release of this RFI is formally communicated through the posting of this RFI on the Georgia Procurement Registry, which is accessible online as follows: http://ssl.doas.state.ga.us/PRSapp/PR_index.jsp
2.2.2.
RFI Review The RFI consists of the following: 1. This document, entitled “The State Entity RFI Document”, and
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2. Any and all documents provided by the State Entity as attachments to the RFI or links contained within the RFI or its attached documents. Please carefully review all information contained in the RFI, including all documents available as attachments or available through links. Any difficulty accessing the RFI or opening provided links or documents should be reported immediately to the Issuing Officer (See Section 1.4). 2.2.3.
Preparing a Response When preparing a response, the supplier must consider the following instructions: 1. Ensure its response is accurate and readily understandable. 2. Clearly label attachments so that the State Entity can easily organize and navigate the supplier’s response.
2.2.4.
“Hard Copy” and Electronic Copies Required Supplier must provide the following number of copies:
Five (5)hard copies One (1) CD-ROM
2.2.5. Electronic Copies 1. Use caution in creating electronic files (i.e., make sure files do not contain viruses, etc.). 2. Use commonly accepted software programs to create electronic files. The State Entity has the capability of viewing documents submitted in the following format: Microsoft Word or WordPad, Microsoft Excel, portable document format file (PDF), and plain text files with the file extension noted in parentheses (.txt). 2.2.6.
Submitting the Response Mark the outside of shipping package as follows: Name of Company Point of Contact for Company and Phone Number RFI# ES-RFI-52800-157 Mail to the following location: Clayton State University Attn: Marcia Jones, Procurement Services 2000 Clayton State Blvd Morrow, GA 30260
3. 4.
5.
Requested Information See Attachment A. Additional Information The State Entity may, at its discretion, ask one or more suppliers to provide additional information and/or meet with the State Entity to further discuss the supplier’s information. List of RFI Attachments The following documents make up this RFI. Please see Section 2.2.2 “RFI Review” for instructions about how to access the following documents. Any difficulty locating or accessing the following documents should be immediately reported to the Issuing Officer. A. State Entity RFI (this document) B. Special Term Definitions from Section 1.5 “Definition of Terms” of this RFI C. ATTACHMENT A - complete description of request
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D. ATTACHMENT B – with buildings current equipment count E. ATTACHMENT C – current network diagram
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ATTACHMENT A Request for Information Clayton State University Campus Network Upgrade THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) NOTICE ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP). NO SOLICITATIONS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. I.
II.
III.
Purpose a) Clayton State University is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to determine: 1) possible directions for a future capital upgrade of existing wired and wireless network infrastructure, and 2) potential vendors with holistic solutions to assist with the project. This RFI seeks information from the networking industry for a wireless and wired network upgrade that can seamlessly transmit IP based data, voice, and video to 10,000 faculty, students, and staff. Information shall address the prospect of N-devices per user. The infrastructure must support the educational, business, and operations needs of Clayton State University, its faculty, staff, and students. Contained in the RFI is a description of Clayton State University, and the objectives that Clayton State desires from a network vendor in its next major network upgrade. Clayton State also desires confirmation from the networking industry that Clayton State’s technology planning goals are aligned with industry standards and evolving higher education network technologies and standards. Overview a) The postsecondary education sector faces continual challenges in the delivery of traditional services such as research, education, and service to the community. The continuing evolution of the information and communications technology market presents both challenges and opportunities for postsecondary institutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. Clayton State University implemented a 5 year strategic plan in 2011. The university desires to review its current information technology infrastructure and technology planning as it prepares a new strategic plan that supports the University System of Georgia’s new 2013 to 2018 Strategic Plan and Public Agenda. This RFI is the first step of a process designed to create a 5 to 10 year plan to accommodate these opportunities and challenges. The goal of the new plan is to position the university to meet the objectives stated by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents, the needs of our students, the business community, local governments, and our funding partners in the state legislature. Scope of Effort a) Description of need i. Clayton State University, a senior unit of the University System of Georgia, is committed to the idea that technology can enable the learning experience and provide students with tools that support success in their careers, present and future. The university is home to more than 7,200 students, 421 faculty, and 600 staff. Clayton State desires to provide its students, faculty, and staff with a reliable, robust infrastructure that assures effective and efficient use of resources to support learning, research, and management of campus resources. Clayton State is already seeing multiple devices per person and anticipates a minimum of three devices per person and expects to this to quickly double and triple. All solutions should be able to handle 3+ devices per person. ii. Clayton State University has been a using a student BYOD model since 2000. iii. Attached to this RFI is a list of buildings, rooms, and the current estimate of wired and wireless ports. iv. Campus
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1. Clayton State University has a distributed network. Each building has an MDF and may have one or more IDFs. See Attachment B for Building, Closet, and Port summary data. 2. All station cable is Category 5e or Category 6. 3. In anticipation of the higher than 1G speeds of 802.11ac, all access points cables will be rewired with two Category 6a 4. Each building has both 62.5micron multi-mode fiber, and single-mode fiber from the core to the building MDF. 5. The University Center is the network core. v. Housing 1. Housing is a separate network connected via fiber and firewalls to the core. 2. Laker Hall (a traditional style dorm) has 1 MDF and 2 IDF’s. The MDF has single-mode and multi-mode fiber to the IDF’s and to the University network core. 3. Clayton Station, an apartment style complex, has 1 MDF with 14 IDF’s, connected via multi-mode fiber. 4. Clayton Station is connected to Laker Hall via SM and MM fiber vi. Attachment B with buildings, MDF/IDFs with wired port counts per MDF/IDF and AP’s per MDF/IDF (including housing). vii. Attachment B - Current network diagram viii. Other design notes 1. Campus uses a Procera PacketLogic device for bandwidth shaping 2. Campus uses Stonesoft Stonegate firewalls 3. Campus uses VMWare for virtualization with iSCSI SANs 4. Campus uses Avaya VOIP for telephony 5. Campus uses Dell servers ix. Anticipated Technical Requirements 1. Solution will provide seamless wireless connectivity across the campus as devices travel from a building to green-space to another building 2. Mixed medium of wireless and wired (mostly wireless for students, and wired and wireless for office areas) 3. WLAN will provide WPA2 encryption of data and support 802.1x. Vendors may provide information as to future trends in the evolution of this protocol as that evolution impacts the planning cycles. 4. WLAN should support multiple SSID’s on same AP/radio 5. Access points should support 2.4 and 5 GHz bands 6. Network should comply with 802.11 ac with backwards compatibility with 802.11a, g, and n 7. All devices must meet common standards for base device management, such as ssh and snmp, syslog, ntp, etc 8. Support for IPv4 and IPv6 9. Each closet build-out should have at least 10% spare capacity. (Vendors should include information on anticipated changes in standards to improve performance of wired connections). 10. All ports should be at least triple speed and support IEEE 802.3at-2009 Power over Ethernet. Revised 08/22/11 PS014
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11. Solution should support access control at the port level to prevent undesired traffic before it even enters the network. 12. The solution should be 10G and 100G uplink ready 13. SDN ready 14. Server room switches should be high performance, capable of supporting all 10G end ports, 40G/100G ports for the future, and still also support current 1Gbps copper connections 15. A small test environment should be part of the response for testing of policies, access control, etc. VMWare for servers is acceptable for reducing hardware and power footprints. 16. The new network products should be compatible with next generation firewalls which can do control and security from application level identification and inspection, and rely on user identification from the network management software for user based filtering 17. Solution should support a user-centric approach to network access control with factors such below to help determine access a. Location b. Time-of-day c. Wired vs wireless d. 802.1x e. Guest access 18. Solution must be guaranteed 100% compatible. CSU prefers a single-vendor solution. CSU must have one point of contact for all network issues. 19. Support Services: The solution include staffing requirements including expertise, availability, and numbers of staff. Vendor may submit staffing ratios as observed in similar installations. Vendors should also discuss options for managed services as may be appropriate. 20. The solution must meet an annual minimum performance metric of no more than 1 hour per year of unscheduled downtime, which is 99.99% uptime per calendar year. x. Requested Information 1. Provide a narrative describing your company’s technology vision for institutions of higher education to the year 2020. 2. Provide a complete solution from your company that is appropriate for Clayton State University. Include analysis suggesting how your solution supports the university strategic plan goals and objectives. 3. List the hardware performance characteristics and limitations, software requirements, and limitations of the proposed solution 4. Specification sheets for all hardware and software in the proposed solution 5. Describe scaling capabilities of the solution 6. Describe capabilities for application-level traffic classification and control 7. Identify Cost Estimate for Solution 8. Provide a 5 year pro-forma reflecting purchase costs, installation, annual maintenance, expected up-grade costs, and a total 5 and 10 year cost of ownership. 9. Describe support levels, hours, escalations, etc. 10. Describe operational metrics (i.e., MTBF, etc.), fault isolation, redundancy and non-blocking failure (recovery) capabilities Revised 08/22/11 PS014
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11. Describe features of the solution that lend to “Future proofing” the new network – measured in terms of capital upgrade costs, labor, maintenance and support 12. Describe programs to enable “swaps” of existing hardware (i.e. trade-ins) 13. Describe training available and customer forums/support groups 14. Describe 3rd party integrations and API’s available and SDN support/capabilities 15. Provide a list of Universities using the solution – both other schools in the University System of Georgia and other schools of a comparable size. What is the size of their deployment and support staff? 16. Respondents are requested to submit their solution capabilities to perform in each of the areas below: a. Management of switches, WAPs, routers, etc. b. Network Access Control features/packages available c. Edge based features to classify, limit and mitigate traffic entering the network d. Security features/packages that integrate monitoring, reporting, and management e. Support of open standards (RFC’s) f. Long term storage of usage and performance metrics g. Describe your vendors’ participation in the development of new technology standards from the international technology standards organizations (IEEE, TIA, EIA, RFC, etc.). h. What proprietary protocols, technologies and methodologies are used (i.e., Vendor specific mib’s, extensions to RFC’s); and how those proprietary extensions may encourage/discourage vendor ‘lock in’.
IV.
IV. Responses a) In addition to the areas outlined in section III of this invitation, responses must include the following: i. Business name and address ii. Name of company representative, title and contact information iii. Cost estimate for providing the capabilities described above (including a breakout between initial procurement costs and follow-on maintenance costs). Costs for Housing (Laker Hall and Clayton Station) and the Student Activity Center should be broken out separately iv. Business size and history (state in terms of employees (total), employees (Georgia), and revenues v. DUNS number vi. Information whether products/services are presently available via DOAS statewide contract, GSA, or other applicable contract vehicles. vii. Clayton State would like to hear from the regional sales representatives and their technical sales engineer for the vendors, not the individual resellers. b) Submissions must describe the respondent’s ability to meet the requirements outlined in the RFI. c) There will be a mandatory meeting of potential respondents for Q&A and a site tour. d) For cases where the solution for wired, wireless, and management is not provided by one vendor, respondents should address the following i. Supported and verified compatibility ii. Provisions for single point of contact, responsibility, warrant, liability, and financial penalties for failure to meet operational and performance metrics.
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V.
iii. Dependencies and requirements for the solution iv. Interoperability, especially in management and single-sign on/network access control. V. Disclaimer a) This RFI is NOT a Request for Proposal (RFP) and is NOT to be construed as a commitment by Clayton State University to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will NOT be considered as proposals, and NO awards be made as a result of this RFI. b) All questions related to this RFI must be addressed to the Office of Procurement. c) All information contained in the RFI is preliminary. All information contained in the RFI is subject to modification and is in no way binding on Clayton State University. Clayton State University does not intend to pay for information received in response to this RFI. Respondents to this invitation are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in this RFI that is marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to this RFI will not be returned nor will receipt be confirmed. (Cite relevant GA law and rules regarding procurement).
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