Digital Canberra (DCBR) Compute Hosting Platform Refresh RFI

⁠⁠⁠Overview

The ACT Government is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) in relation to the Digital Canberra (DCBR) Compute Hosting Platform Refresh, seeking information from industry to inform the future approach to maintaining the ACT Government's shared compute hosting platform.

Purpose

The majority of the ACT compute platform reaches warranty expiry between March and September 2027, with only a subset of newer Dell MX760c blade server infrastructure remaining supported until July 2029. Continuing operation beyond the current hardware lifecycle will increase the risk of hardware failure, reduced vendor supportability, increased operating costs and place constraints on future virtualisation platform upgrades from the current VMWare Cloud Foundations (VCF) platform.

The ACT Government's Strategic IT Asset Management Program (SAMP) has a defined budget, and the ACT Government is engaging with industry to understand what industry can realistically deliver against this budget based on current market costs. The ACT Government is seeking options to deliver the most pragmatic and cost-effective solution to ensure the platform remains operable and supportable into the future.

The ACT Government is seeking to establish the most appropriate method to maintain the capability provided by these environments, and the information obtained through this RFI will inform the ACT Government's arrival at a preferred execution option to approach the market.

About

The DCBR VCF platform is a critical ACT Government shared service supporting approximately 1,400 Virtual Machines across four environments: Data Centre 1, Data Centre 2, Data Centre 3, and Virtual Infrastructure Testing. These environments underpin a significant number of business and citizen-facing digital services.

Instructions to Respondents

Responses received from this RFI will not be used for formal procurement purchases, including shortlisting for selection. Participation in this process will not lead to an engagement. However, the information obtained as part of this RFI will inform the ACT Government's arrival at a preferred execution option to approach the market.