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Request for Proposal for Managed Hosting Services

National Institute of Securities Markets (www.nism.ac.in) Request for Proposal for Managed Hosting Services for NISM _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Important Terminology

Following terms are used in the document to mean:

1. NISM means ‘National Institute of Securities Markets’ 2. RFP means the Request for Proposal document 3. DC means Data Center 4. DR means Disaster Recovery 5. DRC/ DRS means Disaster Recovery Centre/Site 6. ORETS means Online Registration, Enrolment and Testing Solution implemented by NISM 7. Bidder / Respondent – signifies the party that has download this tender document and submitted the response to it.

8. Service Provider – Signifies the party that has down loaded the Request for Proposal or has been issued with the document by NISM.

9. OS means the Operating System

Disclaimer:

This document is meant for the specific use by the Company / person/s interested to participate in the current tendering process. This document in its entirety is subject to Copyright Laws. The bidders or any person acting on behalf of the bidders should strictly adhere to the instructions given in the document and maintain confidentiality of information. The bidders will be held responsible for any misuse of information contained in the document, and liable to be prosecuted by NISM In the event that such a circumstance is brought to the notice of NISM. By downloading the document, the interested party is subject to confidentiality clauses.


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Contents

1. Invitation to the Tender: .......................................................................................................................... 4

2. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 5

3. RFP Response terms .................................................................................................................................. 7

4. Project Details ........................................................................................................................................... 9

5. Detailed Requirements ........................................................................................................................... 11

6. Evaluation process .................................................................................................................................. 18

7. Bid Submission ........................................................................................................................................ 19

8. Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................................ 22

Annexure‐1: Service Provider's Compliance to Technical requirement for Managed Hosting .................. 23

Annexure‐2: Undertaking from Service provider on ownership of proposed premise or unexpired lease

period on proposed site (on Service provider’s letter head) ...................................................................... 27

Annexure‐3: Eligibility criteria compliance for Managed Hosting of Data Centre Facility ......................... 29

Annexure‐4: Service Provider scoring chart ‐ Technical evaluation ........................................................... 31

Annexure‐5: Commercial Bid (Masked) ...................................................................................................... 32

Appendix‐6: Cover Letter (Technical Offer) ................................................................................................ 35

Appendix‐7: Queries related to project, technical details, etc. .................................................................. 36

Appendix‐8: Checklist of Items to be submitted in this bid ........................................................................ 37


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1. Invitation to the Tender:

The invitation for tender is for “Hiring of Managed Hosting Services for Data Center” preferably near Mumbai/Navi Mumbai. A complete set of tender documents may be downloaded by eligible bidder from the website www.nism.ac.in

Important Information regarding Bid Submission

Date of Announcement of Tender 1st March 2011Queries to be mailed by 8th March 2011Queries in the prescribed format to be mailed to [email protected] Date and Time for receipts of tender offers 16th March 2011 upto 16.00 Hrs Time and Date of Opening of tender offers

17th March 2011 at 17.00 Hrs. Place of Opening of tender offers National Institute of Securities

Markets, Plot No. 82, NISM Bhavan, Sector‐17, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 705.

Address for communication As aboveContact Telephone Numbers Phone: 022‐66735100‐06

022‐66735153 Fax: 022‐66735110

Tender offers will be opened in the presence of the bidder representatives who choose to attend the opening of tender on the above‐specified date, time and place.

Technical Specifications, Project Details and various formats and pro forma for submitting the tender offer are described in the tender document.

The respondents of this RFP must direct all communication / clarifications related to this RFP to the following contact person :

Nikhil Shinde, Project Manager, National Institute of Securities Markets, NISM Bhavan, Plot No : 82, Sector – 17, Vashi Navi Mumbai – 400705 Contact Number : 022‐66735153


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2. Introduction

National Institute of Securities Markets is an educational initiative by SEBI with the objective of enhancing the market quality of securities industry through knowledge‐based interventions. NISM, under its School for Certification of Intermediaries, develops and administers certification examinations for various financial intermediaries to raise the competencies of securities markets professionals and strengthen the securities markets.

NISM has launched the Certification Examinations for various segments of the markets such as Currency Derivatives, Mutual Funds, Interest Rate Derivatives etc. NISM currently conducts a few examinations and also has plans to launch other Certification Examinations in the near future. Besides, NISM also conducts activities related to financial literacy, corporate governance, securities markets research etc. This Request for Proposal document (‘RFP document’ or RFP) has been prepared solely for the purpose of enabling NISM to select a service provider who could provide data center space, hosting and management services and supply necessary hardware required for the same for availing of managed hosting services for its primary data centre.

The RFP document is not recommendation, offer or invitation to enter into a contract, agreement or any other arrangement, in respect of the services. The requested services will be awarded to a bidder after the bid goes through the evaluation process successfully and a contract is negotiated successfully with the selected bidder.

2.1 Information Provided

Information provided in this document is derived from various sources and compiled to the best of the abilities of the concerned staff members of NISM. NISM and/of any of it’s staff members will not be held responsible in any manner whatsoever for any inaccuracies, incompleteness or lack of currency.

2.2 For Respondent Only

The RFP document is intended solely for the information of the party to whom it is issued (“the Recipient” or “the Respondent”) i.e. Government Organization/Public Sector Undertaking(PSU) /limited Company or a private partnership firm.

2.3 Disclaimer

Subject to any law to the contrary, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, NISM and its directors, officers, employees, staff, agents, representatives, contractors and advisers disclaim all liability from any loss, claim, expense (including, without limitation, any legal fees, costs, charges,


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demands, actions, liabilities, expenses or disbursements incurred therein or incidental thereto) or damage, (whether foreseeable or not) (“Losses”) suffered by any person acting on or refraining from acting because of any presumptions or information (whether oral or written and whether express or implied), including forecasts, statements, estimates, or projections contained in this RFP document or conduct ancillary to it whether or not the Losses arises in connection with any ignorance, negligence, inattention, casualness, disregard, omission, default, lack of care, immature information, falsification or misrepresentation on the part of NISM or any of its directors, officers, employees, contractors, test administrators, representatives, agents, or advisers.

2.3 Costs borne by Respondents

All costs and expenses (whether in terms of time or money) incurred by the Respondents in any way associated with the development, preparation and submission of responses, including but not limited to attendance at meetings, discussions, demonstrations, etc. and providing any additional information required by NISM, will be borne entirely and exclusively by the Respondents.

2.4 No legal relationship

No binding legal relationship will exist between any of the Respondents and NISM until execution of a contractual agreement to the full satisfaction of NISM.

2.5 Respondent to inform itself

The Respondent must apply its own care, conduct its own investigation and analysis and apply its judgment regarding any information contained in the RFP document and the meaning and impact of that information.

2.6 Errors and Omissions

Each Recipient should notify the NISM of any error, fault, omission, or discrepancy found in this RFP document but not later than five business days prior to the due date for lodgment of Response to RFP.

2.7 Acceptance of terms

A Respondent, by responding to this RFP document, will be deemed to have accepted the terms as stated in this RFP document.


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3. RFP Response terms

3.1 Submission of RFP Response

RFP Response should be received by the officials indicated not later than the date and time mentioned in Section 1 of this RFP.

3.2 Late RFP policy

RFP responses received after the deadline for submission of RFPs will not be accepted by NISM.

3.3 Bid Validity period

The Responses to RFP will remain valid and open for a period of at least four (4) months from the RFP closure date. NISM may agree with the selected bidder to continue with the delivery of products and services for an agreed period of time after the expiry of the contract at the rates as agreed in the contract arising out of this RFP.

3.4 Requests for information

The bidders are required to direct all communications for any clarification related to this RFP, to the NISM official/s as mentioned in Section 1 of this document and in writing. All queries relating to the RFP, technical or otherwise, must be in writing only.

NISM will try to reply, without any obligation in respect thereof, every reasonable query raised by the Recipients in the manner specified. However, NISM will not answer any communication initiated by respondents later than five business days prior to the due date for lodgment of RFP response. However, NISM may in its absolute discretion seek, but under no obligation to seek, additional information or material from any Respondents after the RFP closes and all such information and material provided must be taken to form part of that Respondent’s response.

Respondents should invariably provide details of their email address as responses to queries will only be provided to the Respondent via email. If NISM in its sole and absolute discretion deems that the originator of the query will gain an advantage by a response to a question, then NISM reserves the right to communicate such response to all Respondents. NISM may in its sole and absolute discretion engage in discussion or negotiation with any Respondent (or simultaneously with more than one Respondent) after the RFP closes to improve or clarify any response.

3.5 Notification

NISM will notify the Respondents in writing as soon as practicable, but not later than 10 working days from the RFP Evaluation Complete date, about the outcome of the RFP evaluation process,


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including whether the Respondent’s RFP response has been accepted or rejected. NISM is not obliged to provide any reasons for any such acceptance or rejection.

3.6 Disqualification

Any form of canvassing/lobbying/influence/query regarding short listing, status etc. will be a disqualification.

3.7 Timeframe

The important deadlines concerning this RFP are mentioned in section 1 of this document. NISM serves the right to vary the stated deadlines at its absolute and sole discretion and without providing any notice/intimation or reasons thereof. Changes to the timeframe will be relayed to the affected Respondents during the process.


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4. Project Details

4.1 Purpose

National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) is an educational initiative by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). NISM, under its School for Certification of Intermediaries conducts Certification Examinations for various segments of the participants in the securities markets. NISM presently conducts these examinations through facilities of its authorized Test Administrators (TAs) namely, National Stock Exchange (NSE), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and MCX Stock Exchange (MCX‐SX).

NISM is in the process of developing its own infrastructure and facilities for conducting examinations at its end. For this purpose, NISM has partnered with a software vendor based out at Mumbai for development of an Online Registration, Enrollment and Testing Software (ORETS). ORETS is a web‐based application which will facilitate online registrations, enrollments and testing of certification examinations of NISM.

NISM intends to host ORETS and other similar applications at a tier‐3 primary data centre based preferably near Mumbai/Navi Mumbai on a managed hosting basis.

Data Centre is the location where NISM will primarily host its equipment. The equipment will include servers, storage, network components, backup devices, etc. installed in racks.

The Service Provider (SP) shall be responsible to provide the above Data Centre facilities to NISM as detailed in Annexure 1 of this RFP. In addition, the Service Provider shall also procure equipment such as servers, storage, network components, backup devices, racks, etc. for and on behalf of NISM as detailed in Section 5.2 of this RFP document. The SP shall also provide managed services to NISM as detailed out in Section 5.1 of this RFP document.

NISM will at no point bear any additional cost incurred by the Service Provider on account of capacity enhancement, repair or upgrade etc. of the Data Centre facilities provided by the Service Provider to support NISM’s equipments unless NISM requests for any additional space or power requirements or brings in additional major equipment that would impact the infrastructure allocated to NISM for the period of the contract. The list of the facilities / requirements is provided in Annexure 3 on “Minimum Specifications” and Annexure 1 on “Technical Requirements”. NISM will not accept any plea from the SP for any additional costs for any data centre related facility.

SP shall provide all necessary infrastructure components that would be necessary as per the defined requirements; manage and maintain the same throughout the period of the contract. The SP has to ensure that the desired objective of hosting NISM’s IT infrastructure is completely met. The


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bidder must be the owner of the proposed data center facility provided to NISM or in case of leased premises, an unexpired lease period must be for at least another 7 years.

4.2 Project Scope

The service provider has to provide sufficient space to host NISM’s IT infrastructure. The data center should be located preferably near Mumbai/Navi Mumbai. The hosted site should be Tier 3 Data Center. The SP should also provide sufficient uninterrupted power, electrical connections, air conditioning, backup power through UPS and Generator, telecom facilities, Surveillance, access control system, fire suppression system, physical security and soft services as applicable for Data Center and as required for the proposed equipment on 24 x 7 basis, in order to maintain uptime (99.9%) of all such facilities as per SLA.

The site offered for hosting the Data Center should conform to the minimum specifications as set out in the detailed requirement in Section 5 of this RFP. The SP shall efficiently maintain & manage all the facilities provided to host NISM’s IT Infrastructure at the Data Centre.

The SP is required to provide the remote hands support at the Data Centre as part of the managed hosting.

4.3 Project Timelines

Sr. No.

Activity Time period for Completion

1. Making the Server area ready and available for setting up the NISM’s IT infrastructure in Server area (Site should be ready with servers, electrical cabling, and other facilities like access control system, Communication links, etc should be complete).

3 weeks from date of issuing the purchase order to the SP

2. Site completely ready for inspection & Acceptance testing. 4 weeks from date of issuing the purchase order to the SP


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5. Detailed Requirements

5.1 Data Center Managed Hosting requirements

Managed hosting requirement is comprised of the following service areas:

5.1.1 Area 1 – Database management and maintenance 5.1.2 Area 2 – Operating system management and maintenance 5.1.3 Area 3 – Server hardware management and maintenance 5.1.4 Area 4 – Firewall, load balancer and intrusion prevention services 5.1.5 Area 5 – Systems backup and recovery 5.1.6 Area 6 – Network connectivity 5.1.7 Area 7 – Physical infrastructure

The Service Provider must be able to provide the required services for all of the above service areas. The SP will be required to establish service levels for each service area defined below. The Respondent is required to describe how each service level will be measured, monitored and reported.

5.1.1. Area 1 – Database Management and Maintenance

NISM’s ORETS and other applications and services depend on backend databases for content distribution and data collection.

Scope of Work

NISM may request database administration services from the SP. These services include:

a. Database software installation, configuration, upgrade and migration b. Backup, recovery monitoring and periodic testing c. Database Performance Tuning and Monitoring d. Authorization and access logging e. Storage and capacity planning f. Troubleshooting

Noteworthy Points

a) NISM has standardized on Oracle and MS SQL relational database management systems. The SP must demonstrate proven proficiency in both platforms and preferably have accredited staff to perform maintenance and management duties.

b) The SP must closely work with the Database Administrator of NISM and that of the other Application Service Providers of NISM. The SP will adhere to the Database Administration (DBA)


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and security standards provided by the NISM and it’s the application service service providers of NISM.

c) The hosted NISM databases must be monitored continuously and notification alerts must be generated when agreed parameters are exceeded. Notification alerts should be sent to the DBA of SP, NISM and the application service providers of NISM as appropriate.

d) Database status and management reports must be available on a weekly basis and on demand. The reports must be made available within a day of receipt of a request from NISM.

e) The SP must provide the proposed database service levels for NISM to evaluate. f) Change Management Procedure must be implemented.

5.1.2. Area 2 – Operating System and Utility Software Management and Maintenance

Scope of Work

i) The goal of operating system management and maintenance is to keep active servers current with vendor updates and patch releases.

This scope of work includes:

a. Loading agreed base and operational images onto servers b. Tracking available updates and patches c. Providing image version control and image storage d. Notifying NISM about critical patches e. Reviewing updates with NISM to determine if application service levels will be impacted f. Testing updates in a quality assurance environment before administering to production

systems g. Administration of updates and patches to production systems h. Monitoring server health via automated tools and reacting to alert notifications i. Providing per server OS version reports on a monthly basis and on‐demand j. Conversion of respondent managed physical images for use in respondent managed virtual

environments k. Documentation of the Base Environment on commencement of the contract followed by

monthly updates. ii) The Utility Software includes amongst many others, the packages such as service management agents and antivirus software. The management and maintenance for utility software includes: a. Tracking available updates and patches b. Notifying NISM about critical patches c. Reviewing updates with NISM to determine if application service levels will be impacted d. Testing updates in a quality assurance environment before administering to production

systems (excluding virus definition signature updates) e. Administration of updates and patches to production systems f. Monitoring and reacting to antivirus alerts g. Providing per server utility software version reports on a monthly basis and on demand


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Noteworthy Points

a) NISM will use Microsoft, Solaris, and Red Hat Linux operating systems. The SP must have expertise in all of these operating systems and preferably have accredited staff.

b) The SP must have standard operating procedures in place for supporting the hosted operating systems. NISM will review the operating procedures and make change recommendations.

c) Change management procedures must be employed and all activities affecting the systems must be logged.

d) The SP must have proven expertise in any utility software that will be loaded onto the systems hosted for NISM such as back up and monitoring software. The acceptable forms of proof of expertise are the relevant certifications or suitable references from other clients provided with similar services.

e) The SP must include the proposed OS and utility software service levels in the Bid for NISM to evaluate.

5.1.3. Area 3 – Server Hardware Management and Maintenance

The goal of server hardware management and maintenance is to keep hardware functioning at optimal levels and add capacity as requested.

Scope of Work

This service includes: a. Providing specification recommendations, quotes and processing equipment orders as requested by NISM. This service is limited to equipment that will be deployed at the SP’s hosting facility.

b. Shipping, receiving and storing NISM provided equipment on behalf of NISM c. Assembling, racking and cabling servers d. Modifying server configurations as requested e. Monitoring the physical health of the server hardware and reacting to alerts f. Providing remote hands services

Noteworthy Points

a) The SP is required to provide Intel or Sun based servers to NISM with the following options : i. On a monthly lease basis ii. Ownership with outright purchase

The SP must provide the pricing schedule for leasing servers including any related additional costs such as data transport, monitoring, load balancing and physical storage. The detailed hardware requirement at the data centre is enumerated in Section 5.2 of this RFP document.

b) The SP will actively monitor and maintain all systems necessary for NISM hosted environment whether they are NISM or Respondent owned.


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c) The SP must allow NISM to store spare parts onsite for NISM supplied hardware. The SP must have technician’s onsite that are proficient in replacing and adding components to common hardware platforms such as HP, Dell, Sun, IBM and Cisco.

d) The SP must provide physical access to the NISM hosted infrastructure to NISM staff and NISM approved agents/software vendors. Physical access must be available at all times.

e) NISM may request virtual servers in addition to or as replacements to physical servers as a future requirement. The SP must be capable of providing the same as per NISM’s demand.

f) The SP must provide the proposed hardware management and maintenance service levels in the bid for NISM to evaluate. This will include leasing terms and conditions for the equipment offered on lease.

5.1.4. Area 4 – Firewall, Load Balancer and Intrusion Prevention Services

NISM applications will be accessed by NISM, NISM appointed Test Administrators, Candidates as well as other securities market participants. NISM will also host candidate and examination related data as well as critical data such as item banks on the servers at the data centers. Therefore, the systems providing this data must be protected and secured to prevent intrusion and to ensureand integrity of information.

Scope of Work The Service Provider must provide following services as part of Managed Hosting: a. The SP must be capable of providing dedicated / shared firewall services to NISM on a managed basis. The firewall must be configurable with up to unlimited custom policies. SP must also provide and set default policies for the protection of the servers, wherever custom policies are not set by NISM. The firewall services must be capable of providing: i. A sustained data throughput at a rate of 500 megabits per second ii. Rule based logging and alerting iii. Log reports are to be provided to NISM on demand iv. Auditable change management procedures must be followed for all firewall changes

b. NISM will utilize load balancing technologies to ensure that requests for services may be balanced across several servers. NISM will also use the application layer firewall capabilities of load balancers to further protect NISM’s information assets. The SP must be capable of providing dedicated load balancing services to the hosted servers and applications. Load balancing service must include: i. SSL offloading including re‐encryption to back‐end servers ii. Session and/or cookie based persistence iii. Server, application and service health checking and load monitoring iv. Scriptable reactions to health check and load monitoring results v. Modification of load balancing services must follow change control vi. Auditable change management procedures must be followed for all load balancer

configuration changes c. Anti‐virus services (host based)


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d. SP should provide and propose High Availability solutions on a shared basis. SP may use propose and use HA solutions such as Tivoli, RHEL Cluster, MSCS, ADSM, HACMP, etc. for its Database Server as detailed in Section 5.2.2 of this document.

e. The SP must be capable of providing Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) services to NISM hosted infrastructure to alert system administrators of possible active threats. The IDP system must be configured to take preventative measures such as redirecting questionable source requests. The IDP system must also log all events and be able to produce a report for auditing purposes. The IDP service must include: i. TCP/IP and application signature awareness ii. Configurable for alert and/or suppression modes based on services and applications iii. IDP services are to be wire speed and located in‐line with the application server hosting

segments iv. IDP hardware must fail open in the event of failure. Auditable change management

procedures must be followed for all IDP configuration changes. f. The SP must provide the proposed service levels for firewall, load balancing and intrusion detection/prevention services for NISM to evaluate.

5.1.5. Area 5 – Systems Backup and Recovery

Backup and recovery services must be used to recover failed systems or to retrieve data for other purposes. The frequency and type of backup performed will vary between applications. NISM / NISM vendors will provide backup parameters for all system types and applications.

The SP must be capable of providing physical and virtual tape backup and recovery services for servers and data storage device hosted for NISM. Backup and recovery services are also required for any storage services provided to NISM by the SP. All backup and recovery activities are to be logged. The SP must be capable of providing exports of the log data to NISM on demand. All backup, recovery and media logs must be available upon request to NISM and identified auditors.

The Respondent must provide service level agreement offerings for backup and recovery services to be evaluated by NISM.

5.1.6. Area 6 – Network Connectivity

The Internet is the primary means for NISM to provide information and services externally. The SP supplied ISP services must be stable and highly available (99.9%). Utilization of NISM application and services differs day to day and the associated ISP service will need to be flexible in order to meet service requests.

Scope of Work i. The Respondent must be capable of providing routing and switching infrastructure that meets the following requirements: a. 802.1Q VLAN tagging and trunking b. 10/100/1000 full and half duplex interfaces


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c. Copper d. Traffic prioritization and shaping capabilities e. Port monitoring/mirroring capabilities f. Routers must be capable of BGP routing and BGP failover

ii. The Respondent provided internet service provider (ISP) services must meet the following requirements: a. Dual Tier 1 providers with seamless BGP failover b. 99.9% availability c. 1 GB / 100 MB Internet Port with monthly data transfer of at least 40GB d. Traffic shaping and prioritization capabilities

Noteworthy Points

a) SP shall provide the link monitoring facility to NISM which will enable NISM to monitor the links in real‐time remotely. NISM should be able to monitor following parameters: i. Link Latency ii. Bandwidth utilization iii. Packet loss

The above parameters are minimum requirement. The monitoring facility shall provide other link related monitoring parameters that may be necessary and required by NISM.

b) The SP must clearly articulate the proposed service levels for network services in the bid document for NISM to evaluate.

5.1.7. Area 7 – Physical Infrastructure

NISM expects the physical infrastructure of the hosted data center to follow industry best practices. Physical infrastructure includes:

a. Heating, ventilation and air‐conditioning, including redundant systems for failures b. Fire suppression c. Moisture detection and control d. Electrical power conditioning, uninterruptable power supply service and generator backup e. Physical security including video surveillance and physical access logging

Scope of Work a) The SP must be capable of providing the following physical security services to the environment

hosted for NISM: Physical access management, including logging of all persons entering and leaving the NISM hosted infrastructure environments, validating permission to enter the environment and maintaining an access control list generated by NISM

b) The SP must be capable of providing the following environment management services to the NISM hosted infrastructure: i. HVAC services


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ii. Humidity control iii. Fire suppression systems

Noteworthy Points

a) The SP must be capable of providing the following power provisioning and conditioning for the NISM hosted infrastructure: i. All power must be conditioned ii. All power must be have redundant UPS and generator backup systems iii. Power transfers between the various supplies must be automatic seamless

b) The SP must articulate the proposed Service Levels for physical infrastructure in the bid document for NISM to evaluate.

5.2 Data Center Hardware Requirements

The SP must be capable of providing dedicated server hardware as per the following configuration:

The recommended server configuration to be provided by the vendor is as follows:

5.2.1 Application Server Configuration:

A Network Load Balancing (NLB) cluster architecture, with two servers for the App Server with the following configuration:

Intel® Xeon® CPU E7330 (Quad core) @ 2.4 GHz or above 16 GB RAM Minimum 500 GB Hard Disk Configurable to RAID Level 0/1/5/no RAID

5.2.2 Database Server Configuration:

A single server for Database server, which can, if need arises in the future, be put on a Server Cluster Architecture. The configuration of the server is as follows :

Intel® Xeon® CPU E7330 (Quad core) @ 2.4 GHz or above 16 GB RAM Minimum 1 TB Hard Disk space Configurable to RAID 0/1/5/no RAID

The SP must provide the above servers to NISM on a monthly lease basis / ownership with outright purchase basis. Based on the technical and commercial proposals provided by various Respondents, NISM shall take a call whether to avail the servers on a monthly lease or outright purchase. The SP must provide the pricing schedule for servers including any related additional costs such as data transport, monitoring, load balancing and physical storage.

The SP must adhere to the project timelines mentioned in Section 4.3 of this RFP.


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6. Evaluation process

The competitive bids shall be evaluated in three stages:

Stage 1 – Eligibility Assessment Stage 2 – Technical Bid Evaluation Stage 3 – Commercial Bid Evaluation

6.1 Eligibility Assessment

Eligibility criteria for the Respondents to proceed to evaluation of their “Technical” bids is clearly mentioned in Annexure 3. Service providers who meet these criteria would only qualify for the second stage of evaluation. The service provider would also need to provide supporting documents for eligibility proof. All the credentials of the service provider necessarily need to be relevant to the Indian market.

Committee’s assessment and interpretation of the compliance facts/statements provided by the bidders in their bid documents and the decisions taken in this regard will be final and binding on the bidders. NISM may accept or reject an offer without assigning any reason whatsoever.

6.2 Technical Bid Evaluation

The Technical Bids will be evaluated based on a total score of 400. Refer Annexure‐4 for more details.

The broad criteria for Technical Evaluation are as follows :

The Evaluation Compliance to Technical requirement as in Annexure 1 ‐ Technical requirement SP’s detailed work plan, proposed solution and facilities Proposed Implementation Methodology

(The bidders may be asked to make a presentation/ demonstration of the proposed solution to develop further clarity on the facts/information contained in the Technical Bid, if required.)

Site visit Evaluation The SP will facilitate NISM officers’ & consultants’ site visits to the sites chosen by NISM. The evaluation will be based on the Hosting Solution deployed by the SP and the SP’s role in the implementation of the solution at the visited sites.

The list of requirements for the Technical Bid has been mentioned in “Technical Proposal format” in section 7. The SP needs to earn a cut – off score of 280 marks in the technical bid evaluation to qualify for commercial bid opening. Only those SPs who achieve the specified cut – off scores would


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be short‐listed for Stage 3 ‐ commercial bid evaluation. In case none of the SPs score a minimum of 280 marks then the SPs who have achieved the top 2 scores will qualify for the commercial bid evaluation stage. In case only one SP scores 280 points or above, only this SP will be considered for the commercial bid. The break‐up of the scoring is mentioned Annexure 4.

6.3 Commercial Bid Evaluation

Only those vendors who have qualified after Stage 2 of Technical Bid evaluation will be eligible for the further participation in the Commercial Bid Evaluation Process.

7. Bid Submission Eligibility and Technical Bids shall be submitted in separate sealed envelopes super scribing “ELIGIBILITY BID FOR NISM MANAGED DATA CENTRE HOSTING PROJECT SUBMITTED BY M/S….. ON…..AT Navi Mumbai, DUE DATE _______” on top of the sub‐envelope containing the Eligibility bid “TECHNICAL BID FOR NISM MANAGED DATA CENTRE HOSTING SUBMITTED BY M/s….. ON…..AT Navi Mumbai, DUE DATE ________ ” on top of the sub‐envelope containing the technical bid.

Commercial Bid shall be submitted in another separate sealed envelope super scribing “COMMERCIAL BID FOR NISM MANAGED DATA CENTRE HOSTING PROJECT SUBMITTED BY M/S…. ON ….. AT Navi Mumbai, DUE DATE ______” on top of the envelope containing the Commercial bid.

These three separate sealed sub‐envelopes should be put together in another sealed master envelope super scribing BID for NISM MANAGED DATA CENTRE HOSTING TENDER SUBMITTED BY ….. ON…..AT Navi Mumbai, DUE DATE ________”.

The response should be organized and submitted in the following manner:

7.1 Eligibility Bid

Covering letter certifying Eligibility criteria compliance (as given in Annexure 6) Duly filled up Annexure 3 – Eligibility criteria compliance Supporting credential letters or copies of documentation from clients or system integrators

certifying compliance

7.2 Technical Bid

Table of Contents (list of documents enclosed) 1 copy of the technical proposal with pages properly numbered. The technical proposal

should be bound in such a way that the sections of the proposal could be removed and separated easily;

1 copy of the masked price bid (masked price bid is a copy of the price bid without any prices. Please note that the masked price bid should be an exact reflection of the commercial bid submitted by the vendor as part of the commercial offer except that the Masked price bid should not contain any financial information.)


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1 compact disk (CD) containing the soft copy of technical proposal should be provided

The SP should certify that the contents of the CDs are the same as that provided by way of hard copy. In the event of a discrepancy, details provided in the hard copy will be true.

Copy of the tender document duly putting the seal and signature on all the pages of the document for having noted the contents and testifying conformance to the terms and conditions set out therein should also be enclosed in the Master Envelope.

The proposal should be prepared in English in MS Word / Excel / Power point format. The email address and phone / fax numbers of the bidder shall also be indicated on sealed envelopes.

Paper copies of RFP response and electronic copy (Microsoft word and Excel on CD ROM) of technical bid submissions must be submitted to NISM at the following address:

Mr. Nikhil Shinde Project Manager National Institute of Securities Markets 6th Floor, NISM Bhavan, Plot No. 82, Sector – 17, Near HDFC Bank, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 705.

The sealed bid envelopes as mentioned above should be delivered to

Mr. Nikhil Shinde, Project Manager.

Submission will be valid only if:

Copies of the RFP response documents are submitted as per defined clauses in Section 2 and before the mentioned RFP closing date and time

Submission is not by Fax transmission

Only one Submission of response to RFP by each service provider will be permitted. In case of partnerships / consortium, only one submission is permitted through the lead service provider.

Last date for submission of the response to the tender document is mentioned in Section 1 of this document.

All responses would be deemed to be irrevocable offers / proposals from the SP’s and may if accepted by NISM form part of the final contract between NISM and the selected SP.

7.2.1 Technical Proposal Format


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The SP’s proposal must effectively communicate their solution and be formatted in the specified formats in order for NISM to assess the alternatives. Therefore, proposals must be submitted with the following sections.

The technical bid should be structured in the following sequence:

1. Covering letter as per Appendix 6

2. Executive Summary: The Executive Summary should be limited to a maximum of five pages and should summarize the content of the response. The Executive Summary should initially provide an overview of SP's organization and position with regards to managed hosting services for Education Sector. A summary of the SP's facilities and services that will be provided as a part of this procurement should follow. A brief description of the unique qualifications of the SP should then be provided followed by a summary on capabilities such as resources and past experience of providing such services. Information provided in the Executive Summary is to be presented in a clear and concise manner.

3. Technical Requirements compliance: The Managed Hosting Solution Features Section of the SP’s proposal must consist of a response to the technical requirements in Annexure 1. The SP’s response must explain the technical specifications wherever required.

4. Other areas that need to be elaborated are:

a. Server room b. Facilities provided in Server room room c. Power Provisioning ‐ Power Supply Systems along with details of the redundancy /backup

features, d. Precision air conditioning e. Security Access f. Coverage of Building management system g. Others, if any

5. Copy of Price Bid without commercials as per Appendix 5

6. Queries, if any, in the format as given in Appendix 7

7. Annexure 2 Undertaking Letter for Ownership of Premises / Unexpired Lease


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8. Disclaimer

The scope of work document is not an offer made by NISM but an invitation for response based on which NISM will further evaluate the response or call for alternate or more responses from other SPs. NISM has the right to ask for other competitive quotations and can award any part or complete work to another SPs whom so ever it finds to be eligible for the same taking into consideration the price and quality.


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Annexure1: Service Provider's Compliance to Technical requirement for Managed Hosting

Sr.No. Technical requirement

Compliance (Yes / No)

SP's comments Weightage (out of 100)

1 The Service Provider's proposed site for Data Centre is less than 100 Kms from Mumbai/Navi Mumbai.

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2 Clear space to accommodate 1 no. of 11u rack each at the Data Centre. Layout of proposed space to be provided.

3 The data center should have a load bearing capacity of minimum 750 Kg/ Sq mtr.

4 Freight Lift ‐ The data centre should have a high capacity freight lift for ease of movement of Servers and High density Hw devices

5 The server room area should have a raised floor height of 2ft

6 The server hall height from raised floor to false ceiling should be at least 8ft


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7 Diesel Tanks (for generators) ‐ The data centre should have high capacity diesel tanks for ensuring 24 hour power backup with contracts for fuel supply on demand.

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8 The design for cooling infrastructure at the data centre should be in lines with standard guidelines to support high density cooling needs

9 Redundant CRAC units to facilitate High density cooling needs

10 The temperature in the server hall should be maintained at 20 +/‐ 5 deg C

11 The humidity at the data centre should be maintained at 50 % +/‐ 5% RH.

12 The server halls should have advanced fire detection & suppression system through systems like VESDA & FM 200 /FE 227 respectively

13 The data centre should have microprocessor based system to detect water leakage within a short period of time

14 The data centre should have electronic rodent control systems with operatability on varied frequency range


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15 Security for the building to be available 24*7 at the entry / exit levels.

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16 Power should be available from two different power sources.

17 Two separate power paths from the UPS to be provided to the server / network communication room.

18 UPS should be configured in redundant mode.

19 The proposed server room area should be well covered in the fire detection and suppression system.

20 The building & Server room area should be provided with Water Leak detection system and fire alarm system.

21 The infrastructure should be of tier 3 standards.

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22 Entry & Exit should be restricted and monitored and should also be in CCTV surveillance coverage

23 Smoke detection and fire suppression for the building to be available.

24 The doors for the server room, communications room, and other critical areas beyond level 2 should be fire rated.


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25 The Server room / Hall area should have precision air conditioning with redundancy.

26 The entire solution should be automatic with power supply from the transformer as the primary source and automatic switchover to DG set as a secondary source.

27 99.982% Uptime is required for the DC Environmental Infrastructure.

28 Gate passes to enter SP's premises for NISM’s representatives‐ free of any cost

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29 Audit reports of people accessing the Server room should be available as and when required by NISM

31 Availability of 3 phase , 4 wire power system

32 SP shall provide the electrical cabling required by the racks to be hosted in the data center

33 Compliance with 5.1.1 8







100


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Annexure2: Undertaking from Service provider on ownership of proposed premise or unexpired lease period on proposed site (on Service provider’s letter head)

To,

Mr. Nikhil Shinde Project Manager National Institute of Securities Markets 6th Floor, NISM Bhavan, Plot No. 82, Sector – 17, Near HDFC Bank, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 705.

Subject : Undertaking of ownership of site / premises proposed Data Centre for NISM (in case of owned site) OR

Undertaking of unexpired lease period on the proposed Data Centre period for NISM (in case of leased premises)

Dear Sir,

In case of owned sites

We hereby undertake that the following site address proposed by us, is owned premise and is registered in the name of M/S (Service provider name) vide sale agreement # (XX) dated XX XX XXXX:

Data Centre address:

Sale agreement reference #

Sale agreement dated:

In case of leased site

We hereby undertake that the following site address proposed to NISM Data Centre Site, is a leased premise vide lease agreement dated XX XX XXXX, between M/S (Service provider name) and (Name of the Lessor). The details of the lease period for the premises are as mentioned below:

Address of the Site proposed to NISM:

Lease agreement dated:

Validity of the lease period:


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Name of the lessor:

Unexpired lease period on RFP Response due date:

Please note that the sale agreement / lease agreement copies (whichever applicable) are enclosed herewith as supporting documents.

Kindly refer to us in case of any clarifications.

Warm Regards,

Authorized person’s Name Signature Designation Address Email and phone #


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Annexure3: Eligibility criteria compliance for Managed Hosting of Data Centre Facility

Eligibility Criteria for DC & DRC Complied (Yes/No)

Supporting Required

The proposed Data Centre for NISM should be at least tier III.

Supporting document ‐ publicly available information of the proposed data centre along with an undertaking on a SP’s letterhead, clearly mentioning that the address of the proposed Data Centre and that it is complying with tier III requirements.

Must have provided Managed Hosting facility to at least 10 Companies at any of their hosting sites in India.

Credential Letter/emails from Companies hosting sites at the SP’s co‐hosting facility, clearly mentioning that they have taken managed hosting facility from the Service provider.

Of the above submitted credentials, there should be at least 2 credentials of either Educational Institutions / Capital Markets Participant in India who have hosted their data center with the service provider at their data centre anywhere in India.

Credential Letter from Educational Institutions/Capital Markets Participant / System Integrator.

The SP should have at least two of the belowCertifications / compliance document out of which ISO 27001 or BS 7799 ‐3 certificate is compulsory. • ISO 27001 or BS 7799 – 3 Certified (Compulsory)

For ISO – certification fromGoverning body.

• NFPA 70 & 75 Compliance certificate fromthe concerned authority or implementer / facility builder.

• IS 1893:1984 Seismic Compliance

Certification from governingbody or compliance certificate from the implementer / facility builder.

• TIA 942 compliance (for at least two of the For TIA 942 compliance –


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following – Architectural, electrical, coolingand network.)

compliance certificate fromthe implementer.

Should currently have an average annual turnover of at least Rs. 50.00 crores for last 2 financial years (i.e. 2008‐09 and 2009‐10).

Audited Financial statementsfor the financial years 2008‐09 and 2009‐10

Must be net profit making entity continuously for the last three years, that is financial years – 2007‐08 and 2008‐09, 2009‐10

Audited Financial statementsfor the financial years 2007‐ 08, 2008‐09 and 2009‐10

The bidder must be the owner of the proposed data center provided to NISM or in case of leased premises, an unexpired lease period must be for 15 years from the RFP Response due date.

Undertaking as provided in Annexure 2 to the effect that the premises are owned / leased by the service provider with other details. Registered Lease Agreement and registered sale agreement copies whichever applicable as supporting documents.

Operating for a minimum period of 3 yrs. Certificate of Incorporation.

* Implementer stands for the organization involved in commissioning / installations of the specific facility.


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Annexure4: Service Provider scoring chart Technical evaluation

# Evaluation Criteria Maximum Score

Evaluation Mechanism

1. Compliance to Technical Requirement

100 Compliance to Annexure will be assessed.

2. Proposed solution, facilities and Work Plan

Implementation Methodology

100 The relevant information provided in the Technical Bid will be assessed

3. Site Visit (If NISM decides not to have a Site Visit then the marks allocated for Site Visit will be merged with those of Item‐1 and 2 mentioned above)

200 Solutions Implemented at the chosen sites and the SP’s role in the implementation will be evaluated

Total 400

Note

1. The overall cutoff score is 280 marks.

2. The SP must score a minimum of 80% compliance on Item‐1, even if the SP meets the 280 mark cut‐off and does not meet this criterion of 80% compliance to Iterm‐1, the SP would have deemed not to be meeting the RFP Technical requirements. NISM’s decision in this regard will be binding on the bidder.

3. This is for SP’s internal reference and need not be submitted with Bid.

4. SP need to provide relevant credentials for all of the above points, for scoring.

5. The overall proposal, description of the facilities provided at proposed site, etc. in Technical bid will be evaluated.


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Annexure5: Commercial Bid (Masked)

Commercial Bid for Data Centre

Name of SP: ______________________________________

Sr No. Hosting Component

Option Unit charge for Primary DC

Total Annual Charge

Remarks

Services

1 Rack Space (including SP proposed KVM, 8‐port remote console, etc.)

11 U rack x x Please provide details of rack space, KVM and 8‐port remote console. SP may propose suitable make and model.

2 (a) Internet Bandwidth with Data transfer model

For 100 Mbps shared bandwidth

x x SP may quote for either 2(a) or 2(b) or both.

25 GB / month x x

50 GB / month x x

75 GB / month x x

100 GB / month x x

500 GB / month x x

overage per GB over and above plan

x


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2 (b) Dedicated Internet at Datacenter

SP may quote for either 2(a) or 2(b) or both.

1 MBPS dedicated Bandwidth

x

2 MBPS x

5 MBPS x

10 MBPS x

3 (a) Firewall (shared with unlimited policies),

Per IP for application x x SP may propose a suitable make and model for Firewall (shared)

3 (b) Load Balancing and Intrusion Prevention Services

Proposed Solution x x SP may propose a suitable services and provide details.

4 Back up Charges: SP may also propose a suitable back up policy in the proposal.

50 GB / month x

75 GB / month x

100 GB / month x

500 GB / month x

overage per GB over and above plan

x

Hardware

5 Hardware servers (as per 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 of RFP document)

Rented Hardware (monthly basis)

x x Rented means SP shall own the hardware at all times


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Ownership with outright purchase

x Outright Purchase means NISM shall own the hardware from Day 1 of hosting

Software

6 Operating system Windows 2008 Standard edition

x x

Windows 2008 Enterprise edition

x x

7 Antivirus Per License x x SP may propose a suitable anti‐virus product and provide details.

8 MSSQL Server 2008 License

Per License x x

9 Managed Services (as per 5.1.1 to 5.1.7)

x x Please refer Section 5.1 of RFP for details of managed services

10 High Availability of Servers (shared)

Proposed Solution x x SP may propose any of the HA Solutions such as MSCS/RHEL Cluster/ ADSM/ HACMP/ Tivoli/Others on a shared basis


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Appendix6: Cover Letter (Technical Offer)

Date

To,

Project Manager National Institute of Securities Markets NISM Bhavan, Plot No. 82, Sector – 17, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 705.

Dear Sir,

1. Having examined the Tender Documents including all Annexures, the receipt of which is hereby duly acknowledged, we, the undersigned offer to supply, deliver, implement and commission ALL the items mentioned in the ‘Request for Proposal’ and the other schedules of requirements and services for NISM in conformity with the said Tender Documents in accordance with the schedule of Prices indicated in the Price Bid and made part of this Tender.

2. If our Bid is accepted, we undertake to abide by all terms and conditions of this tender and also to comply with the delivery schedule as mentioned in the Tender Document.

3. We agree to abide by this Tender Offer for 180 days from date of Tender (Commercial Bid) opening and our Offer shall remain binding on us and may be accepted by NISM any time before expiry of the offer.

4. We certify that we have provided all the information requested by NISM in the format requested for. We also understand that NISM has the exclusive right to reject this offer in case NISM is of the opinion that the required information is not provided or is provided in a different format.

Dated this…………………………………..by ……………………….20

Authorized Signatory

(Name: Contact Person, Phone No., Fax, E‐mail)

(This letter should be on the letterhead of the Service Provider duly signed by an authorized signatory)


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Appendix7: Queries related to project, technical details, etc.

[Please provide your comments on this RFP in this section. You are requested to categorize your comments under appropriate headings such as those pertaining to the Scope of work, Approach, Work plan, Personnel schedule, etc. You are also requested to provide a reference of the page number, state the clarification point and the comment/ suggestion/ deviation that you propose as shown below.]

Queries should be mailed in the prescribed format below within the dates mentioned in Section 1 of this RFP.

Sr. No. Page # Point/Section # Clarification point as stated in the tender document

Comment / Suggestion / Deviation

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Dated:

Contact Person’s Details:

Name: _______________ Phone No.: ___________ Fax: _________________ E‐mail: _______________


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Appendix8: Checklist of Items to be submitted in this bid

Section # Section Heading Proforma Given 1. Eligibility Criteria Annexure 32. Cover Letter – Technical Offer Appendix 63. Executive Summary ‐4. Technical Compliance Annexure 15. Technical Offer Descriptive ‐6. Data Centre Tier III and other relevant

certifications ‐

7. Commercial Bid Annexure 58. Undertaking for ownership of

premises/unexpired lease Annexure 2