TO: / TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
FROM: / SITA TENDER OFFICE
DATE: / 17 November 2017
SUBJECT: / RFB 1657/2017: Supply of network equipment and the Installation & Implementation of network equipment for the SITA Centurion Data Centre and the SITA Beta Data Centre in Gauteng for a period of 60 months.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question / Answer
Can you please provide more detail of the existing SITA ecosystem. / Awaiting for the rest of the ecosystem to be awarded
How would the solution need to integrate into the NOC, only via network links to allow IP connectivity, or integration to a specific system or application? / Needs full integration with API, Network connectivity, etc.
What software application and version are used for the SITA IP Service Management Platform? What protocols are supported for integration the SITA IP Service Management Platform? / The following products is utilised by NOC will need to abide to the integration methodologies utilised by the products.
• CA eHealth
the HP Network Node Manager
• Cisco Prime Infrastructure
• IBM Netcool
• Net scout
Centurion Data Centre:
(a) Equipment:
(i) Two 100/40Gbps access cards to interconnect the data centre core switches to the ASR9010 Next Generation Network (NGN) Provider Edge (PE) routers;
Question 2: Do you have a specific model number for the line-card (MPA) that is required and compatible with the current ASR9010? / It needs to be an ASR 9000 Line card that support 100 or 40 Gb/s (example of 40 Gb/s Line card A9K-MPA-2X40GE)
How many ports of 40GE and 100GE is required on each line card? (2x 40GE per line card only?) / Minimum of 2 ports per line card
Nodes to provide interconnectivity between Centurion Datacentre and Beta Data Centre;
Question 3: It’s not clear what is “Nodes” and if this is required to be included in the BOM and pricing? The BOM does not have line item and QTY for “Nodes” / Bidder to provide solution to interconnect the two Data centers (Your solution will determine the number of nodes if any that are required ).
On the network diagram is indicates 2x 250Mbps links for the DCN links, is this already available or do we need to add link cost? / No 2 X 250 Mbps links already available
Is the maximum bandwidth allocated between the Primary and Secondary DC? / Your solution can specify maximum bandwidth
Does SITA have dark fibre available for this interconnect links? / SITA has dark fiber that could be made available.
In a standard Clos architecture it is not recommend or required to connect the core (spine) switch to each other / That is true, connectivity between core switches is not required on CLOS architecture, but can be needed on solution that doesn’t use CLOS architecture. Your solution will determine how they connect.
As per the requirement: for 2x 40GE uplinks from each leaf switch to the 2x core spine switch (160GE total per leaf) and a maximum total of 48x 10GE access ports to connect to “peripheral” hosts (total of 480G) it will provide a contention ratio of 1:3. Is this calculation and assumption correct? / It is correct
SITA Beta Data Centre:
Please confirm if the links between the Spine core switch is required? And if it should be 40GE like Centurion DC, or 100GE ? / If the solution uses CLOS architecture the links between two core switches is not needed. It should be 40GE GE like Centurion.
What type of affidavit is required? Is it a police affidavit or just a customer reference letter? / Police affidavit accompanied by two customer reference letters where similar services were delivered.
Can you please confirm if the Fibre patch leads/cables to connect Access (Leaf or similar) switches to ASR 9010 at 100/ 40G over distance of up to 150 Meters and that will be compatible to the type of transceiver used). Is for connection of “Access (Leaf of similar)” to the ASR? / Correct, if the solution uses CLOS architecture, or you can provide solution of how to connect ASR with the switch Fabric.
Is this required for management connectivity to the Access switches? / it to link the switch fabric the SITA MPLS network
- No requirement is made for “Fibre patch leads/cables to connect Core (Spine or similar) switches to ASR 9010” which will be required base on the SITA design / Your solution will determine if the ASR 9010 is to connect to Core (Spine or similar or to Access (Leaf of similar)
Can you please confirm QTY = 8 in total / Correct
Can you please confirm requirement for 100GE or 40GE? / Either 100GE or 40GE depends on the solution they can provide

Regards,

On behalf of: SITA Tender Office

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