Systems Administration Gateway Environment (SAGE) RFI

Systems Administration Gateway Environment (SAGE)

Request for Information

Responses due: August12, 2011

ERCOT RFI Contact:

Amy J. Manley, C.P.M., C.P.C.M.

Sr. Procurement Specialist

ERCOT

2705 West Lake Drive

Taylor, TX 76574

1.0Introduction

1.1About ERCOT

ERCOT is an independent, non-profit Texas corporationthat is responsible for the reliable transmission of electricity across Texas' interconnected 37,000-mile power grid. ERCOT is also charged with overseeing the transactions related to the January 1, 2002 restructuring of the electric industry, including the development and effective operation of the competitive retail market in its region. ERCOT has two primary office locations: 7620 Metro Center Drive, Austin, Texas, 78744 and 2705 West Lake Drive, Taylor, Texas, 76574. Additional information about ERCOT can be found on its website at

1.2Background

ERCOT has initiated a project that is intended to build a multi-tenant bastion host platform for datacenter management.

To this end, ERCOT is inviting technology vendors to provide information on their products and services as described in this RFI.

1.3RFI Objective

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP. Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to its submission; other than acknowledgment of receipt - IF a request for an acknowledgement is requested by the submitter.

The intent of this RFI is to obtain information to assist with the task of building a standalone datacenter administration environment in an effort to further separate ERCOT’s corporate network from production networks. This is intended to abate the risk from a malware incident on a system/application administrator’s client system.

To determine if an RFP is to be issued,theRFI process willcanvas a targeted industry segment for one or more of the following purposes:

  • Acquiring general or specific information about vendor capabilities.
  • Soliciting assistance in identifying potential technology sources.

2.0Information Being Requested

2.1Products

Define vendor products available to provide one or more of the following:

  1. Client system virtualization
  2. Application delivery to client systems
  3. Application virtualization
  4. Automated client system deployment
  5. Thin client/Terminal server client system centralization
  6. Software package distribution and installation services
  7. All software capable of running on commodity server hardware

2.2Services

Define vendor capabilities and resources available to provide the following:

  1. Detailed design services, including hardware specifications based on capacity requirements
  2. Implementation services, including installation and configuration of software
  3. Migration services, including requirements verification and testing

2.3Capability and Vision

  1. Your organization’s preferred architecture for delivering multi-tenant client computing environments
  1. A typical engagement project plan for an infrastructure implementation effort
  1. Resource plan or resourcing model for a typical infrastructure implementation effort
  2. Strategic direction for improvements to underlying software, including information on features and functionality fit for public release
  1. Any alternative architectures that will isolate critical administrative functions, processes and software from end-user corporate desktops.

2.4Company Position

  1. Please insert your company’s 2009-2011 selected financial data here including net revenue, earnings, assets, debts, charges, etc.
  2. Describe any events in the past 5 years that significantly impacted your company’s financial performance including restructuring, acquisitions, etc.
  3. What are the top two growth areas for your company in 2011?
  4. What makes your company competitive in the multi-tenant client computing (client system virtualization, program delivery, terminal services) industry segment?
  5. How many discrete customers are utilizing your systems in North America and how many systems are deployed?
  6. What are the top three differentiators of your company’s professional services offerings?

3.0Instructions for Responding to this RFI

3.1Who May Respond

Responses from anyone with practical knowledge of the subject matter are welcome.

When and if ERCOT issues a subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP) in this area, responding suppliers to the RFI will be eligible to respond with detailed specifications.

3.2How to Respond

One electronic copy in machine-readable format should be sent to the Buyer listed below. Acceptable formats are PDF or MS Word .doc files. One confirming paper copy of all documents should also be sent to the ERCOT postal address below.

ERCOT

2705 West Lake Drive

Taylor, Texas 76574

Attn: Amy Manley, C.P.M., C.P.C.M.

RE: Systems Administration Gateway Environment

Responses to this RFI must be received electronically at ERCOT no later than 3:00 PM US Central Standard Time on August 12, 2011.

Contact with any other ERCOT employee or person regarding this RFI may disqualify the vendor from this RFI activity.

3.3RFI Response Contact

Companies responding to this RFI shall designate a single contact within that company for receipt of all subsequent information regarding this RFI and any subsequent RFP.

3.4Format of RFI Responses

The following outline is offered to assist in the development of your response. You should include:

  • A cover letter -- the cover letter should include a brief summary of your response, such as indicating to which areas you are responding and must also indicate if supporting documentation is included in your response.
  • The response itself, covering any or all of the areas of information requested by this RFI.

Although ERCOT does not limit the size of responses, you are asked to consider that ERCOT will rely upon resources with limited time availability to review these responses. In order to assure that your response receives the attention it deserves, you are asked to consider limiting the size of your response (not counting any supporting documentation) to approximately 25 pages. If you consider supporting documentation to be necessary, please indicate which portions of the supporting documentation are relevant to this RFI.

3.5Proprietary Information

Any restrictions on the disclosure or use of data and materials contained within a proposal must be clearly stated in the proposal itself with the indication of enclosed proprietary information clearly noted as stated in this paragraph. If proprietary information is submitted, it must be placed in a separate, clearly marked sealed envelope, with the RFI name and due date clearly and conspicuously marked: “Proprietary Information RFI Name, Due Date.” ERCOT is willing to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement if requested.

3.6Reimbursement

ERCOT will not reimburse submitters for any costs in conjunction with their responses to this RFI.

3.7Questions Regarding this RFI

Any questions regarding this RFI should be sent to:

Amy Manley

2705 West Lake Drive

Taylor, Texas 76574

RE: Systems Administration Gateway Environment RFI

Phone: 512-248-3014

Fax: 512-248-3118

Email:

4.0Response Review Process and Schedule

4.1Review Process

ERCOT RFIs are issued with the intent to survey industry to obtain information that provides guidance, which will be used in the preparation of RFPs. ERCOT will review responses to this RFI. Based on those responses, ERCOT will augment its roadmap and will decide if a RFP will be issued.

4.2Clarification

To fully comprehend the information contained within a response to this RFI, the reviewing group may seek further clarification on that response. This clarification may be requested in the form of brief verbal communication by telephone; written communication; electronic communication; or a presentation of the response to a meeting requested by ERCOT.

4.3RFI Response Presentations and Demonstrations

RFI Respondents may be invited to present their response to ERCOT. The purpose of this presentation would be to seek clarification of information contained within the response (as noted above); to further explore issues raised; or to further meet the goals of the RFI.

In addition, a technology demonstration may prove useful to support the RFI response. If desired, ERCOT will coordinate with the Contact cited in paragraph 3.3.

4.4Schedule

The schedule for responding to this RFI is as follows. Please note that early responses are encouraged.

RFI issued:August 5, 2011

RFI responses due:August 12, 2011 - No Later Than 3:00 p.m. CST

ERCOT Request for Information (RFI)%, "ERCOT Confidential 1