Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) Mass Storage System which will provide long-term data retention and backup for the ESIF High Performance Computer environment.

PROJECT NOTICE Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC., Management and Operating Contractor for the Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is operated under Prime Contract DE-AC36-08GO28308 with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL intends to solicit competitive proposals from prequalified business concerns, for the supply and delivery of a Mass Storage System (MSS). Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) Mass Storage Procurement The mass storage resources anticipated for installation within the ESIF upon completion of construction is the focus of this request for proposals (RFP), which is named ESIF-MSS-1 Resource. The ESIF-MSS-1 Resource will provide long-term data retention and backup for the ESIF HPC environment, and includes the following resources: - Near Line Storage (Tier1) Resource - Second Tier Storage (Tier2) Resource - Validation, Test, and Debugging Client (VTD) Resource, The ESIF-MSS-1 Resource is expected to be a tiered storage solution, with the Near Line Tier consisting of disk and the Second Tier consisting of tape, and will be capable of dynamically moving data to the most appropriate media type, migrating data to new media types as they become available, storing data in open formats, and being accessible by industry standard protocols. The HPC clients are expected to manually move their data to the Near Line storage with standard Linux commands or vendor supplied commands. The data migration is dynamically moved to the Second Tier Storage without client interaction or knowledge. The solution must be able to scale in both performance and capacity to support multiple petabytes (PB) of storage and be extremely cost-effective on the basis of cost-per-gigabyte, density, and operation for cooling and power. The solution must be fully protected without external backups and capable of providing reasonable performance for both ingest and later access. PREQUALIFICATION PROCESS NREL has determined that interested firms must be prequalified to submit a proposal. Prequalification will be determined by NREL's panel review of the submitted information, in accordance with the technical criteria provided below. NREL will establish a short list of firms determined to be most qualified to provide the MSS as described above. NREL will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) and prequalified firms will be invited to submit a comprehensive proposal inclusive of a schedule/price/technical proposal and other pertinent information as detailed in the RFP. Oral presentations, and possible site visits may be required as part of the proposal. A single firm will be selected for award based on a best value evaluation of proposals received in response to the RFP. Prequalification submittals must address the following criteria, which is listed in descending order of importance: A) Demonstrated capability to deliver a Mass Storage System as described above between the range of $900,000 and $1,000,000. Provide three examples of previous projects within the last 5 years. Describe your firms experience and expertise in delivery and installation of similar or identical MSS; B) Demonstrated expertise using an integrated approach for successful completion of a MSS as a tiered solution in an HPC environment, with a similar acquisition approach. Provide a minimum of 3 references from previous clients demonstrating successful delivery of a MSS project that was on schedule and on budget; C) Demonstrated ability to collaborate with, and incorporate ideas from diverse expert sources. Provide examples from previous projects demonstrating collaboration and incorporation of ideas from diverse expert sources; and D) Demonstrated expertise to design to energy goals. Provide examples from previous clients demonstrating integrated energy strategies. Responses shall not exceed 15 pages (including attachments). All examples shall be recent completed projects of similar size, scope and complexity. Actual team member's experiences on these projects shall be highlighted. Responses to this notice must be sent to National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Attn: Jesse Castanon, MS-RSF 030, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401 no later than March 6, 2012. This project is open to large and small businesses.