PWS
- The RFP specifies a distinct RPO (1 hour) and RTO (2 hours) for Tier 1 applications. For Tier 2, the RFP specifies 4 hours, is that for RPO and RTO? Similar question for Tier 3 – is 12 hours both the RTO and RPO?
- What are the different tiers of work? Related to RTO and level of qualifications? Different tiers for storage, but not sure if the same
Answer: Respondents can use 4 hour RPO and RTO for Tier 2 workloads and 12 hour RPO and RTO for Tier 3. PWS classifies criticality of workloads into Tiers to reflect their importance relative to acceptable business operations during an outage event. These RPOs and RTOs should be considered minimum requirements. PWS would entertain a solution that maps to these different Tiers or exceeds the minimum requirements for all Tiers. PWS current storage performance is provided for respondents to position different storage performance tiers if applicable. PWS understands some Service Providers leverage large arrays that would exceed current storage performance.
- What does PWS want included in the Redundancy Testing?
Answer: Respondents should be prepared to demonstrate regular maintenance, and and alerting of systems that will support the solution in place for PWS. PWS understands Service Providers often express these as written SLAs. Written SLAs on supporting services is acceptable.
- Will budget be disclosed? What is the budget?
Answer: PWS currently contracts with a Managed Services Provider for Disaster Recovery. Monthly cost for these services is $50,000. PWS is interested in lowering our current monthly costs and achieving a better and more flexible design.
- Focus on one area of PWS’ work, or all 7? Is one area of PWS rated as having a higher need for disaster recovery than the other areas?
Answer: PWS has included all systems that support our 7 areas of business within this RFP.
- Does PWS have a preferred format for the weekly status and/or monthly monitoring reports? If yes, please specify.
Answer: No preference.
- What is most important to you in the delivery of service? Can you rank your top three?
Answer: Security, Cost, Performance.
- Do you have a scorecard to evaluate vendors for this RFP?
Answer: Respondents will be evaluated based on the quality and thoroughness of their bid.
- What are your end goals given a successful project?
- Is there a rubric that will describe the attributes of a successful project?
Answer: PWS needs a more flexible and cost effective Disaster Recovery solution. A successful project will meet or exceed the technical and organizational requirements defined within the RFP. PWS anticipates a quality bid will address how the respondent intends to define attributes, manage and track attributes of a successful project.
- How long is the final presentation expected to be?
Answer: No more than 20 minutes then 10 minutes for questions and answers.
- If there is additional hardware that is to be purchased and installed to fulfill this endeavor, where should it be located and or how much space on the ship(s) or in offices will be allocated for this? Is there a limit?
Answer: PWS does not anticipate any hardware to be installed within our source site to facilitate a successful solution. Any hardware needed within the recovery site should be provided within a secure Data Center as defined in the RFP.
- When balancing cost effectiveness of the solution against beating the RTO and RPO minimums listed in the requirements, would you prefer us to lean more on constraining the cost of the solution or exceeding expectations in recovery objectives?
Answer: As long as the minimum RTO and RPO are being met, PWS does not have a preference.
- Do you have a target budget or a number that you would like to stay under?
Answer: PWS currently contracts with a Managed Services Provider for Disaster Recovery. Monthly cost for these services is $50,000. PWS is interested in lowering our current monthly costs while achieving a better and more flexible design.
- In section 1.1.11.3 of the RFP requirements, it is stated that “Storage environment must be dedicated/partitioned so that PWS is NOT on shared disk with other customer data.” Would a logical partition in a disk or storage pool satisfy this need? Or is the expectation that data storage for the solution will be physically independent to a degree that any physical disk involved in storage of PWS data not host any other customer data?
Answer: A logical partition in a disk storage pool is satisfactory.
- Thinking long-term about the infrastructure that we are looking to provide disaster recovery services for, do you anticipate any major changes that might reduce your needs in the way of storage, computer, or memory in the next two to three years? Any plans for further out into the future? For instance, do you anticipate transitioning or migrating any of the current workload to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model?
Answer: PWS is in the process of transitioning to a Hybrid-Cloud architecture. PWS will be evaluating applications on a case by case basis to determine the practicality of transitioning these workloads to SaaS. Respondents are encouraged to provide a solution and cost model that allows for flexibility in the future.
- What prompted this RFP? What are some of your current pain points in regards to your current process?
Answer: The current Disaster Recovery solution utilizes a combination of storage replication and VMware Site Recover Manager. In addition to being complex to manage, this approach is costly and testing has been unsuccessful.
- Why is it important for you to find the solution you’re looking for NOW?
Answer: Contract with our current vendor is ending and we are seeking a replacement to the solution. Additionally, testing of the current solution has not been successful.
- How will you know when our solution has delivered the benefits you are wanting?
Answer: PWS needs a more flexible and cost effective Disaster Recovery solution. A successful project will meet or exceed the technical and organizational requirements defined within the RFP. PWS anticipates a quality bid will address how the respondent intends to define attributes, manage and track attributes of a successful project.
- How will you know if investing with us was money and time well spent?
Answer: PWS is looking for a long term Partnership. In addition to meeting our technical and organizational requirements, as well as budget, PWS is seeking an organization that can deliver on what’s promised and provide a high level of support and flexibility.
- What is the physical address of the current PWS data center? (Needed to verify power grid and FEMA disaster zone separations under 1.1.1.9 and 1.1.1.10)
Answer: The PWS source site Data Center is located within FEMA zone 3.