LTA for Managed Cloud Services

UNICEF has now issued a Request for Proposal in order to select a supplier for the provision of Managed Cloud Services UNICEF India aims to amplify and accelerate outcomes for children through digital transformation, embracing new technologies focusing on Cloud Computing and Cloud Hosting for cloud-ready solutions. Cloud computing provides a flexible, scalable environment for efficient resource utilization and real-time data management, crucial for informed decision-making across India's varied regions. Cloud hosting ensures reliable, secure, and continuous access to UNICEF India's digital platforms, forming a defence against cyber threats and maintaining stakeholder engagement. UNICEF India develops Websites and Web applications to facilitate collaboration and communication among UNICEF India’s partners and to promote communication with wider audience. The Web applications are developed by different vendors based on contracts awarded to them. These web applications are currently hosted on Microsoft Azure & Amazon Web Services (AWS). A secured, reliable and highly available hosting environment is required to host the Web applications either for UNICEF or for its partners. Cloud Hosting environment & management of cloud services is required to serve the needs of multiple programmes in India. UNICEF globally uses cloud services including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud hosting needs. To support standardization, interoperability, security and operational efficiency, UNICEF India intends to establish managed cloud hosting services for web applications and other approved digital workloads. UNICEF India wishes to establish one or more Long Term Agreements (LTAs) with qualified professional companies for cloud hosting and managed cloud services, primarily on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), with flexibility to consider other public cloud platforms only where specifically justified by the bidder and approved by UNICEF. Bidders may be Cloud Service Providers bidding directly or authorized partners, resellers, solution providers or managed service providers for the proposed cloud platform. Any proposed cloud platform must meet UNICEF’s requirements for authorization, security, data protection, interoperability, operational support, billing, data residency, data sovereignty, compliance and exit management. The LTA shall support UNICEF’s mandate and results for children by ensuring that digital platforms used for programme delivery, communication, partner collaboration or government-supported initiatives remain secure, reliable, proportionate, accessible and responsibly managed. Any workload involving children, adolescents, vulnerable communities, beneficiaries, partners or government programme data shall be assessed through a risk-informed, “do no harm” lens before onboarding. To support effective competition and a good number of technically qualified responses, bidders may propose services for one or more cloud platforms, provided they demonstrate current authorization/partnership status, billing capability, managed service capability and security/compliance controls for each proposed platform. UNICEF reserves the right to award one or multiple LTAs/contracts, including platform-specific or service-specific awards, to the firm or firms determined to offer the most advantageous and best value solution for UNICEF. Other UN agencies, funds or programmes may purchase the same or similar services at their sole discretion under the terms and conditions of the established LTA, subject to their own contracting arrangements. This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.