Soft Market Testing Exercise (SMTE) for Research Storage

The University of Southampton ("University") is a research-intensive university with a broad range of research fields. These research activities generate large amounts of data which is currently stored in several ways depending on the use case: 1) Research File Store 2) HPC storage and 3) distributed edge solutions.

The University's main Research File Store is approximately 2PB in capacity. This is currently delivered using the Dell EMC Isilon platform with a primary cluster hosted in our main off-campus datacentre and a secondary cluster hosted in an on-campus datacentre. Currently this storage is used to provide NFS and Samba shares to both servers and workstations (Approx. 350 SMB and 100 NFS with permissions managed though Active Directory groups).

This project seeks to reduce the number of siloed data storage solutions and deliver a single central solution which meets as many of the researcher needs as possible. Ideally encompassing the provision of HPC storage as well as bulk server and workstation shares.

Full details of the project requirements are provided on the SMTE documentation.

This SMTE is intended to allow interested organisations with appropriate experience to outline their views and provide impartial information to the University with no commitment to themselves or the University.

Additional information: The University is utilising an electronic tendering tool (In-Tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofsouthampton (https://intendhost. co.uk/universityofsouthampton) ) to manage this procurement and to communicate with participating organisations.

All documentation in relation to this tender can be downloaded from the In-Tend portal.

Participating organisations are advised that there will be no hard copy documents issued to organisations and all communications with the University including the submission of SMTE questionnaires will be conducted via the In-Tend portal.

Regular monitoring of the portal is the responsibility of the participating organisation.

If you are not already registered as a supplier with the University, you will need to register in In-Tend in order to access the SMTE documentation.

Once you have logged in as a supplier: click on 'Tenders'; locate the relevant project; and click 'View Details'. Once you are in the project screen, you will be able to register your company against the project and access all documentation by clicking 'Express Interest'.

Further instructions for the submission of SMTE questionnaires are below. To submit your return, please follow the instructions below: 1. Log In 2. Click 'Tenders' 3. Locate the relevant project 4. View Details 5. Click on the tab relating to the relevant project stage (e.g. 'Soft Market Testing') 6. Click on the 'Attach Documents' button and upload your return. 7. Check ALL your response documents are uploaded and displayed in the "My Tender Return" panel. The system will only permit your organisation to make one return. 8. Click the red "Submit Return" button. Please note that, to preserve the integrity of the tendering procedure, all queries must made be via the correspondence function within the In-Tend portal.

The deadline for the return for completed SMTE questionnaires is 03rd March 2022 (12:00 midday).

Please Note:

This early engagement notice is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market engagement and does not constitute an commitment to undertake any procurement in the future.

Interested parties will not be prejudiced by any response or failure to respond to the SMTE and a response to this notice does not guarantee and invitation to participate in this exercise of any future procurement.

This notice does not constitute a call for competition to procure any services, supplies or works mentioned in this notice and the University will not accept and proposals offered in response to this notice.

The University of Southampton is not liable for any costs, fees or expenses incurred by any party in relying to this early engagement notice and/or providing a SMTE response.