Germany – IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support – Betrieb von File & Storage, Backup & Restore, Datacenter und Virtualisierung

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) intends to award an IT service provider, through a negotiated procedure with a competitive dialogue, to provide services in the areas of File&Storage, Virtualisation, Datacenter, and Backup&Restore, ensuring the diverse requirements and the continuous development of the company-wide IT infrastructure. In the File&Storage area, the existing storage systems are to be operated locally at the respective sites. If local operation is uneconomical, the connection to the nearest or technically best-connected site is to be decided by the central DLR-IT. Currently, systems from NetApp, FAST-LTA, and other manufacturers (e.g. Synology) are in use. The storage is divided into different storage and SLA classes, with the hardware selection determined by the storage class and the guaranteed operating time determined by the associated SLA class. Additionally, institute-owned storage systems (IuE systems) are managed upon request; in this case, the respective IT manager of the institute is the contact person for the IT service provider. In the Virtualisation service, the provider manages the central virtualisation platform of the DLR, which includes both central and decentralised as well as institute-specific services. The environment consists of a central cluster in the main data centre (ZRZ) and several decentralised sites (DRZ), which are operated uniformly according to a defined architecture standard. All clusters, hosts, and resources are administered across the board by a central management tool, ensuring consistent configuration and high operational safety. The Datacenter service assumes full operational responsibility for the DLR data centres. Core tasks include coordinating all providers, access management including escorting authorised persons, organising deliveries, and accompanying changes and maintenance work, particularly maintenance of the power supply of the data centres. The provider acts as an interface to the internal and external data centre operators (3rd-Level), manages space and cabling (excluding LAN/WAN and IuE hardware in the DRZs), and maintains and updates the documentation in the documentation tool. Furthermore, it supports Disaster Recovery and Failover tests, ensures business continuity, provides end-to-end operational capability of the IT landscape, and ensures service availability across all technical silos. Maintaining order and security in the data centre, for example by controlling access and immediately reporting irregularities, is also part of the scope of services. In the Backup&Restore service, a cost-effective concept for central and decentralised systems is to be provided. The existing backup infrastructure of the DLR consists of two separate environments: Veeam, which primarily secures virtual servers, and IBM Storage Protect, which protects physical, decentralised systems and archive data. The provider is responsible for regular backups according to defined RPO/RTO criteria, secure storage and versioning of data, and restoration at file and system level. Additionally, monitoring, reporting, and seamless documentation of the backup status must be ensured. As the service description and its attachments are confidential documents, the bidder must first sign a confidentiality agreement (NDA). Upon submission of the duly signed confidentiality agreement, the bidder will receive the required documents. Please complete the enclosed form "Confidentiality Agreement" and submit it via the communication function of the platform subreport ELViS. Upon receipt, you will receive the complete service description via the platform.