RFQ No. 1-18-C014 Datacenter Colocation and Associated Support Services December 4, 2017 Questions and Answers Notice: Questions may have been edited for clarity and relevance. 1. Question: Do you have a target watts per square feet for the 1000 sq. ft? (currently you have watts info or 8 racks) 40 racks can fit comfortably in 1000 sq. ft. However this will be based on the needs of the Airport Authority. 2. Question: Will you consider a response from a primary data center less than the 50 mile desired distance? No. 3. Question: What is the projected deployment date for the project, i.e., when does MWAA need the colocation services available to commence the project? Second Quarter of 2018. 4. Question: For proposal submissions, should the package be addressed c/o Felipe Dominguez? Yes, and it must be submitted to the address indicated on the first page of the RFP. 5. Question: Section V Solicitation Provisions, paragraph 14 Will the Authority consider alternative contract structures to that of an IDIQ contract format? An IDIQ format does not align well with a dedicated colocation Space and Power commitment, and does not allow for best value to MWAA. For example a firm fixed contract is preferred. No. The requirements are not completely known at this time so the IDIQ format is best suited to meet the Airports Authority s needs. 6. Question: We understand that the Space commitment is 1,000 square feet effective from the commencement of the agreement. What is the initial minimum power requirement in kw? Questions and Answers for RFP 1-18-C014 Page 1 of 5
7. Question: At what point is it expected that the base power commitment will be achieved? For example, if the base power design is 250 watts per square foot, the minimum for the committed 1,000 square foot area is 250kW. When, i.e., in what year or month would utilization of 250kW be projected? 8. Question: SOW Section 1 Regarding the following, The Contractor must be a primary datacenter colocation provider. Proposals from subcontractors and third party brokered datacenter colocation providers will not be considered. a. Does this statement mean that the only entity that can propose an offer and be considered for evaluation is the owner/operator of the proposed datacenter? b. To provide best value to MWAA, will the Authority consider allowing a datacenter colocation provider without a compliant location propose and resell a partner datacenter that meets the location requirements of the solicitation? In this case the reselling partner would be the Contractor. a. Yes b. No 9. Question: SOW Section 6.1.1 The specification calls for 1,000 square feet. Will the Authority please provide the specific hardware/server cabinet quantity, and specifications, i.e., cabinet dimensions that will occupy the proposed 1,000 square foot space? Not relevant. The Airports Authority intends to use industry standard storage cabinets. See Attachment 01-10. Tentative Implementation Power Requirements. 10. Question: SOW Section 6.1.3 MWAA is requesting first right of refusal for adjacent expansion space. a. What are the anticipated space requirements (square footage, or cabinet quantity) for the expansion space? b. What is the anticipated timing/schedule for MWAA expansion throughout the life of the contract? c. Will MWAA consider less than a 60 day period to respond affirmatively or negatively as to its intent to act on the expansion space? a. Unknown at this time. Initial request is for 1,000 square feet of contiguous, enclosed space. b. Unable to forecast the need c. No 11. Question: SOW Section 6.8 Does MWAA have a specific preference for Network Connectivity Providers available within the proposed datacenter location? MWAA does not have a specific preference for Network Connectivity Providers; however MWAA prefers to have Tier 1 ISP providers. Questions and Answers for RFP 1-18-C014 Page 2 of 5
12. Question: SOW Section 10 Can MWAA provide a base/day 1 deployment specification for: a. Quantity of square feet utilized? b. Quantity of cabinets deployed? c. Volume of power kw utilized? See Statement of Work - 10. Tentative Implementation Power Requirements. 13. Question: SOW Section 10 To better assist the offeror in providing competitive and comprehensive pricing as well as colocation design to meet the needs of MWAA, will MWAA provide a ramp schedule for incremental utilization of: a. Cage space? b. Power per kw utilized? Unable to provide at this time. See Statement of Work - 10. Tentative Implementation Power Requirements. 14. Question: Section III Price Schedule Will the Authority amend the current pricing requirements and the associated pricing excel sheet to allow for bidders to propose pricing by kw, or kva (current industry standard) versus square footage and circuit based power, to allow for accurate calculations and best value to MWAA? This is an IDIQ vehicle due to unknown future usage. Please see Attachment 01-10. Tentative Implementation Power Requirements. 15. Question: Section IV Representations - Section V Solicitation Provisions, Subsection 18 Statement of Understanding Will the Authority allow terms and conditions to be negotiated at time of final contract award in order reflect final scope of work and pricing? This solicitation is a best value RFP which uses a competitively negotiated procurement process. The Airports Authority may negotiate terms in advance of award of a contract. However, an offeror taking material exceptions to the Airports Authority s terms and conditions may result in the termination of negotiations and award of the contract to another offeror. 16. Question: Your requirement to be more than 50 miles, but less than 150 miles of your primary datacenter in Ashburn. Is this a hard requirement as our datacenter is about 40 miles of your Ashburn datacenter or would this distance be acceptable? Yes, it is a hard requirement. 17. Question: Is it a requirement that the datacenter be certified by the Uptime Institute to Tier III standards? Or datacenter is built to Tier 4 Electrical standards and Tier 3 Mechanical Standards and we have documents to show this. Would this be acceptable? No, the contractor needs to adhere to the Uptime Institute Tier III standard. Anything in excess will be value added, but it is not a requirement. Questions and Answers for RFP 1-18-C014 Page 3 of 5
18. Question: Can all of the racks have the same 50A whips to make it simple? (Metered at the RPP and PDU)? No. 19. Question: What are the Airport Authorities preferred network providers? See answer to question 11. 20. Question: Please clarify "When requested, the Contractor must provide DC power" 400v, 48v, etc. At this time we do not have a need for DC power. 21. Question: (Section IV-1), Part 02. Is foreign entity in reference to being foreign to a particular State or to the US? Located outside of the United States. 22. Question: (Section IV-2), Part 04. Where can we find the Authority s disadvantages size standard(s)? Although mentioned in Section IX, no actual standards were provided. The Airports Authority s current LDBE size standards are the same as those of the US Small Business Administration and are subject to change at any time. The current LDBE size standards are listed at: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/files/size_standards_table_2017.pdf 23. Question: (Section IV-4), Part 09. The actual performance of the services will not be subcontracted out, but some of the ancillary pieces such as cleaning and security of the datacenter will be but not your dedicated cage. Would those type of entities need to be named in this Part 09? They only need to be included if they will be directly involved in the performance of the services under this contract. 24. Question: (Section VI-2), Part 03. As the owner of a multi-million dollar multi-tenant data center facility, we are concerned about the potential risk to our building as well as to our other tenants; so in terms of liability recovery, approximately how much is the Airport Authority s Aviation Enterprise Fund currently worth? The Airports Authority s comprehensive financial report, budget and other financial statistics can be found on our website at: http://www.mwaa.com/about/financial-and-statistics. 25. Question: (Section VII-13), Part 20. Does the Airport Authority allow for any notice and cure period regarding either events of default or violations of the contract? Section VII 20.B 2 provides for a 10 day period for a contractor to notify the Contracting Officer of causes of failure to comply with contract terms. If the Contracting Officer determines that the facts warrant, the contractor will be allowed time to cure. 26. Question: (Section VII-15), Part 23. The RFP says this section is applicable to contracts performed on leased property. Even though this is not a lease agreement, does the Airport Authority consider this contract and the colocation space in it as being leased property in terms of determining the applicability of this Part to the contract and the services provided under it? This Section is applicable to this contract. Questions and Answers for RFP 1-18-C014 Page 4 of 5
27. Question: (Statement of Work Page 1), Part 5. In order to provide the Airport Authority with evidence of our SSAE 16 Type II or ISO 2700X, we need to enter into a mutual non-disclosure agreement with the Airport Authority. Is this something the Airport Authority would be open to? The Airports Authority will only require evidence of security certification or standard from the potential awardee during the pre-award review, at which time there is no objection on entering into a non-disclosure agreement. All offerors are required to state in their proposals the proposed facilities security standards or certifications. 28. Question: Are the RFP and SOW contract terms and conditions open to negotiation? This acquisition is being conducted as a negotiated procurement (RFP). Some items may be negotiated at the discretion of the Airports Authority. 29. Question: In SoW Section 6.5 Fire Suppression subsection 6.5.2. You reference NFPA 75 which version is required? Would 2013 be acceptable or is 2017? 2013 is acceptable. 30. Question: SoW Section 6.10.3 references NFPA 110. Is NFPA 110 a requirement? Yes. 31. Question: Can we get overall final requirements for purposes of providing price quote. We would like to see final requirements (draft would be ok, just need more information if possible) for items such as: number of cross connects, number of power drops/wattage densities, remote hands details, any overhead cabling or special make ready considerations for your space, 6 sided cage required?, etc. Unavailable at this time. 32. Question: SoW 7.1.3 Remote Hands. Can we get a greater description of the type and quantity (monthly hours expected) of Remote Hands needed (i.e. Smart Hands) and the exact type of skills needed to support MWAA. Reboot physical server, replace hard drive (0-5 hrs. per month). 33. Question: SoW Section 7.1.4 Cloud Catalog Services. Are there any more specifics to which cloud provider/services you are looking for, or minimum quantity to have access to? This requirement is optional. The Airports Authority currently uses Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, VMWare, and WorkDay. Questions and Answers for RFP 1-18-C014 Page 5 of 5