Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to appoint a qualified bidder to provide managed backup services for the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) over a period of three (3) years. The services include the implementation of a cloud backup solution, ongoing maintenance, and support to ensure data availability, disaster recovery, and system resilience.

Scope

The scope of work encompasses:

• Provision of managed backup and disaster recovery services for all core applications and data of DMPR.
• Implementation of a cloud backup solution compatible with existing virtualization technology (VMware) and backup software (Veeam Availability Suite).
• Replacement and upgrade of outdated backup hardware infrastructure, including deduplicating storage solutions.
• Deployment of backup infrastructure at the Johannesburg Regional site, ensuring geographic separation for disaster recovery.
• Provision of backup services for Office 365 (MO365) and Azure applications and data.
• Regular testing, reporting, and compliance with specified RPO and RTO targets.
• Provision of backup and restore capabilities with secure data residency within South Africa.

Technical Requirements

The technical requirements include:

• Compatibility with existing VMware virtualized environment and Veeam Backup & Replication.
• Implementation of deduplicating storage to replace current external SAN backup storage.
• Provision of immutable snapshots, data mover service integration, and other advanced backup features.
• Achieving 95% availability with SLA breach penalties for non-compliance.
• Provision of backup schedules, retention policies (weekly for 8 weeks, etc.), and regular testing every six months.
• Guarantee of full data access and secure data residency within South Africa, including data for Office 365 and Azure.
• Use of secure transfer protocols (e.g., SFTP, VPN, Azure Site Recovery) during data replication.
• Provision of detailed documentation, migration plans, and skills transfer.

Skills Requirements

The successful bidder must demonstrate:

• Accreditation and partnership status with OEMs for relevant hardware and software.
• Certified project management expertise, including a Project Manager with at least five (5) years of relevant experience and certification.
• Technical team members with a minimum of two (2) years of experience in configuring and implementing Veeam backup solutions, with proof of relevant certifications such as VMCE.
• Experience in managing enterprise backup projects across multiple sites, with evidence of successful implementations.
• Ability to develop comprehensive project plans, migration strategies, and performance measurement frameworks.

Overall, bidders must possess the technical expertise, accreditation, and experience to deliver reliable, compliant, and scalable backup solutions aligned with DMPR’s requirements and policies.