Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

سحابة اخلدمات املشرتكة " مشروع

"املرحلة الثانية –

وثيقة االسئلة و االجوبة

Question and Answer Document

07/09/2014

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 2 of 12

Chapter “4.1 Yesser Data Center and Portal Assessment Requirements” is requiring the

bidder to “study the current infrastructure of Yesser's data center” and to “study the current

infrastructure and the structure of Yesser's portal and provide recommendations”. There is

also a chapter “3. Current situation”, which briefly describes the HW and SW infrastructures

that Yesser already has in place.

1. Is the Yesser Data Center and Portal Assessment (and the providing the expected

recommendations) an activity that needs to be implemented during the project execution? OR

Should Yesser Data Center and Portal Assessment (and the providing the expected recommendations)

be a part of the technical proposal, based on the information presented in chapter 3?

In General, Assessment is expected to be a phase during the project implementation\execution where all elements impacting the project will be reviewed and the required data will be collected.

Requirement “5.5 Storefront Requirements - Req 68. The storefront requirement,

development, testing, and release should be compliant with Yesser SDLC methodology

implemented”

2. Can you please provide public references or documentation regarding the “Yesser SDLC

methodology”, as they are not present in current RFP?

Yesser SDLC methodology includes template, process customized according to Yesser requirements. Yesser will share it with the successful bidder. For more information you may refer to Yesser web site http://www.yesser.gov.sa/en/Methodologies/Pages/Yesser_SDLC.aspx.

Requirement ”5.7 Project management – Req 1.2 The Bidder's project management

methodology has to be compliant with YESSER project management Methodology

(YesMethod©).”

3. Can you please provide public references or documentation regarding the “YESSER project

management Methodology (YesMethod©)”, as they are not present in current RFP?

YES method is Yesser PMO methodology (template, process, ..) and Yesser will share it with the successful bidder. For more information you may refer to Yesser web site http://www.yesser.gov.sa/en/Methodologies/mechanisms/Pages/introduction.aspx.

Requirement 82, at page 11 in Appendix C of the RFP: “The bidder should provide qualified

on-demand cloud Integration SMEs according to roles and responsibilities described in Table

5”.

4. Please clarify the term Cloud Integration SME?

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 3 of 12

Cloud Integration SME means Cloud Integration Subject-matter expert. The bidder is expected to provide (on demand) the required resources (consultant\ specialist) to deliver any new integration requirements that are needed for Cloud infrastructure other than what is defined in the project scope. The total man days are 200 days and are expected to be on 6 different periods (for mobilization cost calculation).

Requirement 92, at page 11 in Appendix C of the RFP: “The bidder shall comply with

Resource Policy in table 4 that will act as a guide and to other conditions.”.

5. Please clarify if remote-support option can be proposed for after-working hours support?

All operation staff are expected to be on-call after working hours and will start working on the incident remotely as soon as they receive a request. Moreover they shall visit the site within 1 hour from receiving the request in case they couldn’t solve the problem remotely.

In section “4.2 Integration” of the RFP: “The solution should be integrated with the following

Yesser's systems: CMDB's and IT Service Management Systems”.

6. Please clarify the ITSM tool currently used by YESSER.

BMC IT service management.

7. Please clarify what is the CMDB software currently used by YESSER.

BMC IT service management.

8. Share the current software inventory (along with version #), which needs to be maintained during

MO tenure (if any, other than the SW proposed for Cloud Development).

The bidder’s scope of support and warranty covers the software and hardware it provides as part of its solution. Support and warranty for Yesser existing infrastructure is not part of the scope.

9. Will the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provide elastic Virtual Machines only or elastic Physical

Servers as well?

Physical Servers provision is not mandatory (preferred).

10. Will the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) combine Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for

Cloud consumers?

Yes, service provision must support complete cycle including but not limited to firewall security policies, network VLANs, routing configuration, and load balancing on Yesser current infrastructure.

11. Will the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) be protected in the Disaster Recovery site as well? If

yes, what is the RPO and RTO in mind?

Disaster recovery characteristic overview:

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 4 of 12

Yesser is expected to host the cloud infrastructure in at least two data centers ( in Riyadh). The HW defined in section 4.2.1 Business Requirements sizing will be distributed in two data center.

Disaster recovery for the cloud management platform and cloud store front is required (Req. 7). To make it simpler for the bidder, Data replication and failover service will be provided by Yesser infrastructure which will deliver the targeted RPO & RTO. The bidder’s scope must cover professional services, HW, and software considering it is a warm site. More details will be provided to the successful bidder.

Hosts provided to users through the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can be running at multiple locations. At this phase, Disaster recovery for IaaS will be provided through the backup capability only. User should consider additional Disaster recovery requirements in its design.

In case the answer is not clear, you may send your questions to RFP@yesser.gov.sa before September 12, 2014.

12. Will the Cloud infrastructure Hardware, section 4.2, host the IaaS, PaaS and the SaaS?

The current Business Requirements Sizing will be used only for the IaaS. While the cloud management platform, store front, and operation team will be responsible to provide IaaS, PaaS and the SaaS.

13. What is the expected number of tenants for IaaS? For PaaS? And for SaaS?

N/A.

14. Cloud Infrastructure Specifications unclear (Arabic/English numbering is unclear). Please confirm

the Cloud Infrastructure Hardware. How many total sockets, how many core per socket, how many

GB RAM per socket, how many GB Storage per socket.

Refer to the RFP document section 4.2.1 Business Requirements Sizing page number 32 & 33.

15. 5.3 Cloud Infrastructure Requirement, Req 7 discuss Disaster Recovery yet hardware and

software doesn't specify if total of sockets is per site or for both site. Please clarify.

Please refer to the answer for question No. 11

16. 8. Will the IaaS/PaaS/SaaS live in its own Storage (SAN) or bidder should provide an isolated

Storage?

The RFP document section 4.2.1 Business Requirements Sizing provides the requirements for the IaaS infrastructure. Other HW requirements for the solution (management, backup, …) should be identified by the bidder and included in its proposal. PaaS and SaaS HW (storage, backup, Servers) not part of the scope.

17. Should the assessment of the data center for suitability of cloud cover business continuity?

Yes, considering the clarification provided in question No. 11.

18. What is the existing change management system at Yesser that we need to integrate with?

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 5 of 12

BMC IT service management.

19. Is the bidder going to use Yesser Service Desk or provide his service desk component?

Yesser uses two service management solutions:

BMC ITSM for IT infrastructure, Cloud HW & software event will be logged in.

Microsoft Dynamics for external user, cloud user calls & emails will be logged in. The Cloud operation team is expected to use both according to defined purposes. The cloud platform and store front is expected to integrate with both systems.

20. Is the bidder responsibility to provide the backup tool to be used for VM backups – VM backup

section?

The question needs to be rephrased. The backup capability is part of the service which will be provided under IaaS specifications. The end user is expected to be able to select a backup policy during the provisioning phase and user should be able to take manual backup and do restoration online without the need of operation team support. The backup solution should provide operating system level backup (mandatory) while application level is optional. Also the cloud management platform should support the capability to export the hosted system in case the user wishes to migrate from the cloud infrastructure for any reason which is basic cloud capability.

21. On Section 4.3 at the SLA Management. Can you please elaborate more on what is mean by

managing SLAs online? Can we have a use case for this?

SLA management provides the user with the capability to measure the service performance and notify in case of a breach. The SLA management should include (but not limited to):

Availability

Utilization

Performance

Incident management (response and resolution)

Service request management

22. What is the cloud platform shared services that need to be exposed?

Please refer to the RFP main document.

23. Is customer expecting the project going to be in phases

Not a clear question. The scope of this RFP will be implemented in one phase. In future, other services will be introduced though other projects.

24. Regarding the storefront requirement mentioned on page 37, Does Yesser want the bidder to

propose this feature now as part of the submitted proposal? or this is a future requirement that is not

needed to be proposed right now?

Storefront is one of the main mandatory requirements of this project.

25. What is the expected virtual server volumes from the day one of the project and what is the % of

YoY growth?

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 6 of 12

Not define. Yesser will be responsible to added additional processing power when the performance of the HW define in the RFP reach a specific threshold.

26. What is the expected new virtual server build requests per month?

Not defined.

27. Are you using any server provisioning tool currently or holding any provisioning tools licenses? If

yes please provide the details.

No tools are currently used by Yesser.

28. Please clarify if DR also part the scope and it so, please provide the following details

a. DR type - Hot/Warm/Cold

b. Distance from primary DC (Yesser DC)

c. Capacity required in DR - Same as Primary/70% of primary, etc.,

Refer to question No. 11 answer. 29. Can supplier perform the monitoring activities remotely ?

No, all operation activities perform on-site.

30. What would be the tentative user base in year-1?

N/A.

31. Can supplier assume that detailed system architecture and DC BoM will be provided post

assessment of Yesser DC?

No, all the solution architecture and BOQ must be provided in the proposal.

32. Will Cloud Reference Architecture would be provided by MCIT or supplier needs define it based

on DC assessment?

The scope must include development of complete project documentation including (but not limited to) high level design , low level design, as-built documentation, test plans, and operation manuals.

33. Other than self-service and provisioning portal , do you need a service desk with common

ticketing system to support the cloud or AMER system of MCIT be used? If later, then will MCIT

provide documentation on existing AMER system before bid submission?

Please refer to previous answers. Yesser will provide the applicable documentation according to its policies and procedures.

34. Bid document states that Storefront be able to use Yesser existing portal to present the

storefront. However, the storefront should be configurable to migrate-able to other portal platform.

Request to clarify this statement.

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 7 of 12

The requirement is to present the store front though Yesser existing portal (MS sharepoint) as part of this project scope. also the storefront should support other portal technologies in case Yesser wishes to use in the future but it is not part of the current scope (not included in the financial proposal).

35. If Yesser portal promoted to StoreFront means reusing the platform which is SharePoint or

building a new platform for StoreFront web applications on other any Java based technology platform

or products such as Websphere/JBoss Need confirmation.

The bidder proposed storefront can run on any technology but it should be presented over Yesser portal.

36. Is it expected/accepted that external application Portlets will be embedded within SharePoint

Yesser's site? If yes then confirmation that technical team of MCIT will support as per vendor needs

Yes, and the technical team will support the vendor as possible considering that changes on Yesser portal will be implemented by the bidder.

37. StoreFront Portal to be integrated with Yesser Portal (SharePoint) and SSO with GSB Portal

(WebSphere Portal). Portal web application for cloud service provisioning and user management to be

developed and supported for 3 years. Confirmation that both Yesser portal and GSB portal are

internet facing public sites.

Confirmed. Considering that this shouldn’t impact the solution.

38. "Request clear diagram on main building blocks of eGov Program on diagram on page 25 is not

clear.

NA.

39. How many concurrent and unique users are expected on the StoreFront & Yesser Portal?

100 concurrent users.

40. The GSB Portal is based on HTTP, WP, WCM, IBM Content Analytics with Enterprise Search and

WebSphere Mobile Portal, TDS,DB2. Please share the versions for these softwares to check on

interoperatbility with the StoreFront Portal and OS version?

Consider all component are using the latest versions.

41. Technical Review of Yesser DC and Yesser Portal for cloud readiness. Please elaborate if the

Yesser Portal movement to Cloud infra or any other technology WebSphere Portal are a part of the

bidders' scope?

Not part of the scope.

42. For communications and collaboration with the Yesser or StoreFront portal, will the social media

integration or communities forums etc are a part of this project?

Not part of the scope.

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 8 of 12

43. Does the scope include the understanding Yesser's existing portal and convert it to have

additional virtual portal as StoreFront? It means the existing Portal infra, setup and site redeigned to

host StoreFront another VP or addition of StoreFront to the existing site?

Not a clear question, but if the proposed solution runs on top of SharePoint, the bidder must propose the required HW & licenses to host it. Later after the assessment, in case there is no impact on Yesser portal (operation or performance), storefront can be deployed using Yesser portal existing infrastructure after Yesser approval. if not, storefront will have dedicated HW & SW.

44. Please confirm that Technologies for both GSB and National Portal cover - LDAP TDS and TAM, DB

DB2 and TFIM for identity management.

For detailed answer, you may refer to the RFP main document.

45. The scope include providing HW SW specifications for the implementation, Will the license cost

be borne by Yesser for Yesser portal and be reutilize for StoreFront or if we suggest a new portal

platform with no new additional HW requirement needed is acceptable.

All HW /software licenses must be part of the proposal. Please refer to question No. 43.

46. Are there APIs for showing cloud monitoring to be integrated with SoreFront Portal or only the

service request transactions and history of such transactions a part of the StoeFront portal scope?

Cloud monitoring is part of the cloud management platform requirements and how it is integrated and presented to user is part of the requirements and the bidder responsibility. Yesser will not provide API.

47. Any management functionality for cloud operations should be available in this portal. Does it

mean scope includes cloud monitoring and reporting as well or ony service selection, provisioning and

user customer management.

Please refer to the RFP main document.

48. For the monitoring and reporting tools any APIs are available to track/access on the

infrastructure such as Tivoli monitoring etc….

No monitoring solution will be provided by Yesser. You may refer to question 46 and the RFP main document.

49. Is SSO needed with the National Portal or Yesser Portal as well. In such a case currently GSB

Portal as TDS and Yesser Portal as AD, so will Storefront reuse the National portal TDS and have a SSO

using TFIM with Yesser's AD or vice versa?

How Yesser provides the SSO functionality is not a dependency. The storefront must use the SSO capability provided by the national portal to authenticate the user. Managing the authorization and auditing is expected to be part of the storefront and independent from the existing Yesser infrastructure (National portal, Yesser AD, GSB).

50. Please clarify that staff indicated on page 57 and 58 is per shift and MCIT will need same staff in 3

shifts.

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 9 of 12

The staff requirements defined in the table should meet the shift requirements (total including the shifts), no need to increase the number. The table includes two mistakes:

Senior Cloud Monitoring Specialist: Type of Involvement ( On-Site, 8*5 ) not ( On-Site, 24*7 )

Cloud Operation Specialists: Quantity ( 3 ) not ( 5 )

Title Role Qualifications Type of

Involvement

Quantity

Operation & Support

Team Manager

Will be the main contact person for

all operation and maintenance

matters

He will manage all on-site / on-

demand resources and tasks

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

10+ years of progressive experience in computing and Infrastructure.

Strong technical experience in Cloud Computing.

Saudi Nationality.

Resident, On-

site 1

Senior Cloud Monitoring

Specialist

Cloud infrastructure and platform

monitoring.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

5+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

On-Site, 8*5 1

Cloud Monitoring

Specialists

Cloud infrastructure and platform

monitoring.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

2+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

50% of the specialists should be Saudis

On-Site, 24*7 5

Senior Cloud Operation

Specialist Performs daily Cloud operations.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

5+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

On-Site, 8*5 1

Shared Services Cloud Phase II RFP Page 11 of 12

Cloud Operation

Specialists Performs daily Cloud operations.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

2+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

50% of the specialists should be Saudis

On-Site, 8*5 3

Senior Cloud Service

Provisioning Specialist

Interacts with government agencies

to perform Cloud service

provisioning.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

5+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

Saudi Nationality.

On-Site, 8*5 1

Cloud Service

Provisioning Specialist

Interacts with government agencies

to perform Cloud service

provisioning.

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

2+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

Saudi Nationality.

On-Site, 8*5 1

Cloud Integration SMEs

Provide on-demand services to

integrate the Cloud components

with other systems in Yesser

BCs. in computer science / engineering.

10+ years of progressive experience in computing and infrastructure.

Strong cloud computing knowledge and skills

On-Demand 200 man-day

Table 1 Resources Qualifications

51. Please clarify that knowledge transfer workshops are to be conducted (on site) at MCIT Premises

in Riyadh.

Yes.

52. Overtime and working during Eid period will be governed by employers' (Bidder) terms and

conditions with employees. Please confirm

Yes, as long as it doesn’t conflict with KSA labor laws and regulations.