Request For Expressions Of Interest for AFDB Headquarters’ Datacenter Certification – Côte D’ivoire

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

“AFDB Headquarters’ Datacenter Certification”

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan, CÔTE d’IVOIRE

Corporate IT Services Department (CHIS)

E-mail: IT_Recruitment@AFDB.ORG

Telephone: (+225) 20 26 22 61/ (+225) 20 26 25 83

 

Context :

1. The African Development Bank (AfdBD) hereby invites Consulting Firms to indicate their interest in the following Assignment: AFDB Headquarters’ Datacenter Certification ;
2. The objective of this assignment is to recruit a construction-engineering firm to support the Bank during its Headquarters’ Datacenter Tiers certification design phase. The scope of the mission is related to Tier III design certification support according to the UPTIME Institute Company’s standard.

The technical areas concerned are power supply (high voltage and clean power), air conditioning, and building works. The mission of the consulting firm is to produce all missing and updated diagrams (graphic for high power, HVAC, layout of other equipment) based on the available architectural diagram descriptions and nomenclatures of all equipment. The company will support the Bank for the acquisition of equipment and works to correct eventual HQ data center design deficiencies vis a vis Tiers III standard. The company will also provide summary presentation of the project in English according to Uptime requirements.

The assignment for the Consulting firm will cover, but will not be limited to, the following activities part of the tiers Certification of design documents phase. The Consultant firm will support the Bank in:

• Preparing the working session with the certifying body ;
• Gathering and producing the documentation required by the certification body ;
• Analyze the current documentation and update it if required ;
• Draw the Datacenter diagrams and plans if some are missing ;
• Align the documentation with the certifying body rules for Tier III design documentation ;
• Analysing the Certifying body feedbacks ;
• Producing an action plan to solve potential issues that might threaten the success of the TCDD.

The detailed terms of reference are attached as Annex.

3. Experience of the firm and Staff :

• The Consulting firm must be able to:
• Draft plans, diagrams and calculation notes according to the standards of the certification body.
• Master the ASHRAE standards for selecting and regulating HVAC equipment and be able to present a TCDD (Tiers Certification Design) file according to Uptime’s requirements.
• Analyse existing documents, update them if necessary, draw missing plans for the Datacenter and modify them to bring the design into line with Tier III rules if necessary.
• The Consulting firm must be an ATD (Accredited Tier Designer – Uptime Institute) and have already participated in a certification. Uptime’s Design certification is very detailed and follows a very specific process.
• The Consultants proposed by the firm shall meet the following minimum criteria: o A minimum of 5 years of expertise in Tier III datacenter certifications;
• Extensive knowledge datacenter operations.

4. The Corporate IT Services Department (CHIS) invites eligible firms to indicate their interest in providing these services. Interested eligible Consulting Firms or associations of Consulting Firms shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to provide the services (documentation, references for similar services, experience in comparable Assignments, availability of qualified staff, CVs of Staff, etc.) ;
5. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for the Use of Corporate Consultants. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consulting Firm does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include it in the shortlist ;
6. The duration of the assignment is expected for 06 months ;
7. Interested Consulting Firms may obtain further information at the address below during office hours 09:00 to 17:00 hours, Abidjan Local Time ;
8. Expressions of interest must be sent by email at the address below before Tuesday 28 May 2019 17:00 hours, Abidjan Local Time and mention “Expression of Interest for AFDB Headquarters’ Datacenter Certification”.

For the attention of: IT Recruitment Team African Development Bank

Corporate IT Services Department (CHIS) Avenue Joseph Anoma, 01 B.P. 1387, Abidjan, CÔTE d’IVOIRE

Tel: (+225) 20 26 22 61

Email: IT_Recruitment@AFDB.ORG

ANNEX – Terms of Reference

AFDB Headquarters’ Datacenter Certification

 

1. Background:

1.1. Introduction to African Development Bank (AfDB)

The African Development Bank (the “Bank” or “AfDB”) is a continental multilateral development institution established in 1963 by an international Treaty, the Agreement establishing the African Development Bank. The Bank’s membership currently consists of 54 African states and 26 non-African states. Additional information on the Bank is available on the Bank’s website (www.afdb.org).

The Bank has approximately over 2,000 staff members, who have been recruited from a wide geographic area only limited by membership in the Bank. There are currently 80 different nationalities from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas represented within the Bank making the institution multicultural in every sense of the word. The Bank has two official languages: English and French. It co-operates with a large network of international development partners.

1.2. Corporate Information Technology (IT) Department (CHIS) :

The function of the Corporate IT Services department (CHIS) is to align the IT delivery strategy along with the Bank’s business strategy, to increase the organizational effectiveness through efficient use of Information Systems (IS). The department is mandated by the Bank to deliver the best possible IT services for Bank staff to help achieve the results that will get the Bank closer to accomplishing its development goals.

2. Introduction :

The Bank’s Headquarters building is a high-rise building with an area of approximately 46,000 m² comprising offices, meeting rooms, technical premises and various service rooms. It is located in the Plateau district of Abidjan in Côte d’ Ivoire and consists of two contiguous towers of 18 floors each, a ground floor, a mezzanine and three basements.

As part of the refurbishment works of this building that were finalized in December 2015, new equipment and installations were carried out by the building contractor and its subcontractors.

Among other installations carried out by the contractor as part of the building renovation work, a TIER III data center (concurrently maintainable) was constructed in accordance with Uptime Institute standards. The data center is built around 6 rooms i) a Main data center that hosts servers, data storage equipment and some network equipment ii) 2 network rooms (for redundancy purposes) called North and South and iii) 2 Telco rooms (telecommunication) for the same reasons and iv) 2 UPS rooms. The data center is about 300 m2 (190 m2 for technical rooms : main data center, network rooms, UPS rooms). The Bank’s Data Centre has been operational since April 2016.

The data center conformity to the tiers III standard has never been formally tested. Since its operationalization, the HQ Data Center was faced to some major incidents. In addition, some audit missions conducted by Internal Audit Department have already raised up some issues related to the cooling system and congestion into some rooms of the data-center. All these issues lead us to check the compliance of the HQ data center against tiers III standards.

The Bank has decided now to compete for the UPTIME Institute company’s tiers III Certification program. The purpose of this decision is to ensure that the data center that has been constructed is

really a tiers III data center as it is supposed to be. The potential deviations from the tiers III standards will be addressed by taking appropriate measures. The ultimate goal is to comply with best practices in data center management and improve data center facilities availability.

A tier III data center architecture is highly recommended for companies with a worldwide presence like AfDB. Indeed, the Bank’s services require consistent uptime due to availability (Email) or financial penalty issues (financial applications). A datacenter is classified as a Tier III, when it is possible to maintain all of its facilities without stopping operations.

The purpose of the whole certification process that the Bank plan to achieve with the collaboration of UPTIME (the unique organization in the area of data center certification) is to effectively reach the tier III architecture of the datacentre, in order to meet the following objectives:

1. Audit the design and the construction works and documentation of the HQ data center according to UPTIME Institute Tiers III formal standards ;
2. Pro-actively identify and correct all potential data center facilities (cooling, power systems, etc…) design deficiencies that may later impact data center operation :

• conduct formal  and  full  tests  of  the  data  center  facilities  resiliency  so  that  potential incidents that may affect data center operation are detected and mitigation measures are taken earlier.

The Bank has approached UPTIME Institute (the Tiers III certification body), to gather information on data center certification program requirement. The certification program comprises three steps i) Tiers III design certification ii) Tiers III construction certification and iii) Tiers III operation certification ;

Concerning the first step and just for this step, UPTIME has strongly recommended that the Bank recruit a company to support the Bank project team in this phase achievement.

 

3. Assignment objectives :

The objective of this assignment is to recruit a construction engineering firm to support the Bank during the Tiers certification design phase. The scope of the mission is related to Tier III design certification support according to the UPTIME Institute Company’s standard.

The technical areas concerned are: power supply (high voltage and clean power), air conditioning, building works. The mission of the consulting firm is to produce all missing and updated diagrams (graphic for high power, HVAC, layout of other equipment) based on the available architectural diagram descriptions and nomenclatures of all equipment. The company will support the Bank for the acquisition of equipment and works to correct eventual HQ data center design deficiencies vis a vis Tiers III standard. The company will also provide summary presentation of the project in English according to Uptime requirements.

 

4. Scope of the assignment :

The assignment for the Consultant will cover but will not be limited to the following activities part of the tiers Certification of design documents phase. The Consultant firm will support the Bank in:

• Preparing the working session with the certifying body ;
• Gathering and producing the documentation required by the certification body ;
• analyze the current documentation and update it if required ;
• draw the Datacenter diagrams and plans if some are missing ;
• align the documentation with the certifying body rules for Tier III design documentation ;
• Analysing the Certifying body feedbacks ;
• Producing an action plan to solve potential issues that might threaten the success of the TCDD.

 

5. Selection criteria and process :

The Bank will make its selection based on the technical and financial quality of the proposals, by evaluating the competence and experience of the consulting firms, their proposed methodology and profile, qualifications and relevant experience. The financial offer should also be in the Bank’s procurement guidelines.

• The Consulting firm must be able to:
  • Draft plans, diagrams and calculation notes according to the standards of the certification body.
  • Master the ASHRAE standards for selecting and regulating HVAC equipment and be able to present a TCDD (Tiers Certification Design) file according to Uptime’s requirements ;
  • Analyse existing documents, update them if necessary, draw missing plans for the Datacenter and modify them to bring the design into line with Tier III rules if necessary ;
  • The Consulting firm must be an ATD (Accredited Tier Designer – Uptime Institute) and have already participated in a certification. Uptime’s Design certification is very detailed and follows a very specific process ;
  • The Consultants proposed by the firm shall meet the following minimum criteria :
    • A minimum of 5 years of expertise in Tier III datacenter certifications ;
    • Extensive knowledge datacenter operations.

 

6. Reporting :

The consultant(s) will work under the direct supervision of the project manager assigned by the IT department and overall supervision of the Data Center and Systems Engineering Services Division Manager. Other department of the Bank namely, General Services and Procurement (CHGS) will also play a key role in the execution of the recommendations.

 

7. Deliverables and timetable :

The Bank will provide confirmation that each of the deliverable reports and associated tasks has been successfully completed, allowing compensation to be paid to the Consultant.

Milestone			Date			Deliverable(s) completed
			completed
Phase 1 : Design Documentation			To be defined			*   Listing and description of all the
preparation							technical	facilities	of	the
							datacenter
						*   Technical and graphic documents
							required by the certifying body
						*   Formatting of existing distribution
							diagrams  to  meet  the  certifying
							body requirements
Phase 2 : Working session			To be defined		*		N/A
Phase  3  :  Analysis  and  Action			To be defined			*	Answers  to	follow-up	certifying

 

8. Location of the assignment :

The work will be performed from the Bank’s datacenter premises in Abidjan, as the consulting firm will need to visit the data center facilities and participate to remote Working Session with UPTIME experts.