Future Hosting and Storage Services (FHAS)

This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is issued by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and aims to inform potential suppliers of an upcoming procurement opportunity and to invite them to participate in the Request for Information (RFI) as part of phase two of the Market Engagement.<br/><br/>It is important to note that this is not a call for competition, and will not act as the official commencement of the procurement activity for Defra’s Hosting and Storage service in support of business applications for Data Centre hosted on-premise and private cloud infrastructure. <br/><br/>The initial step will be inviting interested suppliers to a virtual supplier briefing presentation (‘Industry Day’) on Friday 6th of September 2024 where Defra will provide detail on the current Hosting and Storage arrangement, our strategic direction and provide further detail. <br/><br/>Overview of Requirements:<br/><br/>Defra is seeking to procure Future Hosting and Storage Services (FHAS) to support our ICT infrastructure. Our primary objectives are to ensure high availability, scalability, and security of our data and applications. The services will include but are not limited to:<br/><br/>• Infrastructure Services<br/>• Platform Services<br/>• Data Centre Facilities Management & Site Services<br/>• Distributed Server (Comms) Rooms Server Management<br/>• General Services, e.g., Service Catalogue and Foundation Services<br/>• Cloud Engineering Services<br/><br/>We aim to partner with suppliers who can provide innovative and cost-effective solutions to meet our diverse and evolving needs. <br/><br/>It is important to note that this procurement is solely focused on hosting and storage related services. Application transformation and migration are delivered via a number of additional ongoing programmes such as the Legacy Applications Programme; the FHAS supplier will support the hosting related element of any such activity and may input into the application review / treatment process, however the application related services are contracted separately to this procurement.<br/><br/>Industry Day Presentation:<br/><br/>We invite potential suppliers to an Industry Day presentation, where we will provide a detailed overview of our requirements and procurement process. This event will be an opportunity for suppliers to gain a better understanding of our needs and to engage with our team.<br/><br/>Date: Friday 6th of September 2024<br/>Time: 10:00am<br/>Location: Virtual Meeting via the Microsoft Teams Platform<br/><br/>Request for Information (RFI) and Market Engagement Questionnaire (MEQ):<br/><br/>Following on from the Industry Day, Defra will issue a comprehensive RFI document with full details and a Market Engagement Questionnaire to suppliers that registered interest. The purpose of the RFI is to provide suppliers with the information of the upcoming procurement opportunity to enable them to:<br/><br/>• Provide input into the procurement process and Service Design, including but not limited to:<br/>o Provide feedback on Scope / Requirements.<br/>o Provide feedback on the Commercial Approach and Model.<br/>o Completion of the Market Engagement Questionnaire to support the Tender Phase.<br/>• Make an informed decision about whether they wish to bid for the opportunity.<br/><br/>These documents are designed to gather valuable input from interested suppliers to inform our procurement strategy and requirements. <br/><br/>How to Participate:<br/><br/>Interested suppliers are invited to register their interest in this opportunity via email to: Mamun.Islam@defra.gov.uk using the email title, ‘FHAS Interested Supplier’. Upon registration, suppliers will receive further details about the Industry Day, RFI, and MEQ.<br/><br/>Please include the following information in your email:<br/><br/>• Company name.<br/>• Company number.<br/>• Contact details including email, telephone and preferred person to contact.<br/>• A brief summary of the market you operate in, and how you position yourselves within this in relation to the requirement.<br/><br/>Please note due to the sensitive nature of the requirement, all interested suppliers will be required to sign and return an Authority provided Non-Disclosure Agreement in order to participate.<br/><br/>Timeline:<br/><br/>PIN Issuance: Friday 23rd August 2024<br/>Registration Deadline: 3pm on Thursday 5th September 2024<br/>Industry Day Presentation: Friday 6th September 2024<br/>RFI and MEQ Issuance: Monday 9th September 2024<br/>RFI and MEQ Submission Deadline: 6pm on Thursday 10th October 2024<br/><br/>Contact Information:<br/><br/>For any queries related to this PIN or the upcoming procurement, please contact:<br/><br/>Name: Mamun Islam<br/>Position: RFI Commercial Lead for FHAS<br/>Email: Mamun.Islam@defra.gov.uk <br/><br/>We look forward to engaging with potential suppliers and leveraging their expertise to shape our Future Hosting and Storage Services (FHAS) procurement. Your participation is highly valued and will contribute significantly to the success of this initiative.<br/><br/>Thank you for your interest.