DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT
The Government of Canada is advancing its digital capabilities by expanding its cloud services portfolio, as part of its commitment to providing secure, efficient, and user-friendly government services. This expansion, aligned with the Shared Services Canada 2024-2025 Departmental Plan, is a key component of Canada's Application Hosting Strategy, which aims to establish a secure, resilient digital ecosystem that prioritizes privacy, transparency, and accessibility.
To cater to its diverse digital requirements, Canada is incorporating a Private Cloud into its hosting solutions, leveraging Hardware as a Service (HaaS) to support a range of services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Database as a Service (DBaaS), and Containers as a Service (CaaS). This scalable, dedicated IT infrastructure will enable the government to adapt to changing business needs, optimize processes, and manage service costs more effectively.
The envisioned solution will serve as a cornerstone for the continuous enhancement of Canada's digital service delivery, ensuring data protection and privacy. Canada seeks a contractor capable of providing HaaS with options for IaaS platform, Managed Private Cloud Services, and/or a "Cloud-in-a-Box" solution hosted in Canada’s Enterprise Data Centre (EDC) and/or Third-Party Data Centres (DC).
INVITATION TO QUALIFY
The intent of this Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) is to identify the suppliers who have the required capacity in delivering Hardware as Service (HaaS), including compute, storage, and networking services for a Private Cloud Solution. Suppliers are invited to qualify in accordance with the terms and conditions of this ITQ in order to participate in any for subsequent phases of the procurement process. This ITQ is not a solicitation. No contract will be awarded as a result of this ITQ.
PROCUREMENT PROCESS
ITQ Process – Phase 1 (current phase)
This ITQ is the first phase of the procurement process. The ITQ process will be conducted in the following stages:
Posting of this ITQ : Instructions to respond to this ITQ are described in Section 3 – Instructions to Respondents (completed on March 4, 2025).
ITQ Webinar: As detailed in Article 1.6, suppliers are invited to attend an Information Webinar where Canada will provide context on changes made to the Draft ITQ and outline the next steps (completed on March 11, 2025).
ITQ Evaluation: After qualification closing date, the evaluation process will be conducted in accordance with Section 5 – Evaluation Procedures and Basis of Qualification of this ITQ document.
All Qualified Respondents (QRs) will be placed on a single use qualification list.
Phase 2: Invitation to Refine (ITR)
Canada will engage with a limited number of QRs through a series of ITR waves, which may include one-on-one sessions, questionnaires, and interactive webinars to gather feedback on the proposed competitive process. At the end of Phase 2, based on the findings of the ITR, Canada will determine the configuration of future competitive process(es).
During this phase, Canada will assess options including Managed Private Cloud Services, Cloud-in-a-box, and IaaS Platform. If QRs can provide HaaS along with all these options, Canada may opt for a single procurement; otherwise, it will structure procurement based on market capacity. Canada will finalize its approach at the end of this phase.
Challenge-Based Solicitation (CBS) - Phase 3 - To be confirmed
Based on the findings from the ITR wave(s) of Phase 2, Canada may initiate one or more competitive processes for Hardware as a Service (HaaS) and any of the options outlined in the ITQ, which may be located within EDCs and/or Third-Party Data Centres SSC is currently contemplating the award of one or multiple contract(s). The contract(s) may have an initial term of between 5 to 25 years, with option periods. Canada seeks a long-term contract(s) to ensure stability for applications hosted on the platform for many years to come. This approach will not only reduce the introduction of technical debt and facilitate economies of scale for Canada, but also to provide financial stability to the winning bidder(s).
As part of phase 3, negotiations under Article 512 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (and the corresponding Articles in the applicable international trade agreements) may be conducted with any bidders related to this procurement
FUTURE COMMUNICATION
After the ITQ Process (Phase 1), all QRs will be placed on a single use qualification list. Canada will nevertheless update this notice to inform all suppliers about the issuance of the final CBS, if any.
TRADE AGREEMENTS
This requirement is subject to the following trade agreements:
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement
Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement
Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement
Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement
World Trade Organization- Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-GPA)
COMPREHENSIVE LAND CLAIM AGREEMENTS (CLCA)
The requirement is not subject to the CLCAs, as none of the locations proposed services that will be provided are located within any of the Land Claim Settlement Areas.
LANGUAGE
Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.
ENQUIRIES
Enquiries regarding this solicitation are to be submitted to the email below:
PVRCloudServicesRCRs.DCCServicesinfonuagiquesARF@ssc-spc.gc.ca.
PREVIOUS AMENDEMENT AND ADDENDUM FOR THE ITQ
ADDENDUM 005 - 2025/04/09
The purpose of this addendum is to respond to questions received via email from Industry from April 5th to April 9th, 2025.
AMENDMENT 004 - 2025/04/04
The purpose of this amendment is to modify the ITQ.
ADDENDUM 004 - 2025/04/04
The purpose of this addendum is to respond to questions received via email from Industry from March 27th to April 4th, 2025.
AMENDMENT 003 - 2025/04/01
The purpose of this amendment is to:
A. Extend the ITQ closing date, and
B. Modify the ITQ.
ADDENDUM 003 - 2025/04/01
The purpose of this addendum is to respond to questions received via email from Industry from March 18th to March 25th, 2025.
AMENDMENT 002 - 2025/03/21
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until April 7, 2025.
ADDENDUM 002 - 2025/03/18
The purpose of this addendum is to post the Questions & Answers received from the webinar that was held on March 11, 2025. Questions received up until March 18, 2025, are also included.
AMENDMENT 001
1. Modify the ITQ; and
2. Provide the link to the Response Form.
ADDENDUM 001 - 2025/03/14
The purpose of this addendum is to publish the slide deck used during the webinar held on March 11, 2025.
PREVIOUS AMENDEMENT AND ADDENDUM FOR THE DRAFT ITQ
ADDENDUM 6 - 2025/03/03
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until March 10, 2025.
ADDENDUM 5 - 2025/02/14
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until March 3, 2025.
ADDENDUM 4 - 2025/01/29
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until February 14, 2025.
ADDENDUM 3 - 2025/01/15
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until January 29, 2025.
ADDENDUM 2 - 2024/12/20
The purpose of this addendum is to extend the ITQ closing date until January 15, 2025.
ADDENDUM 1 - 2024/10/31
*** Due to technical problem, the link to the Feedback Questionnaire has changed ***
To provide feedback, please use the latest version of the feedback questionnaire provided in the document titled "AMD FEEDBACK QUESTIONNAIRE - FORMULAIRE DE RÉTROACTION MOD" This document can be found in the "Bidding Details" tab. Please follow the link provided to access the form and submit your comments.
*** Please note that the deadline for receipt of the Feedback Questionnaire has been extended and is now Due November 8th at 11:59 p.m. ***
