Virtual Hosting Solutions Invitation to Qualify (ITQ)

Shared Services Canada (SSC) is initiating a pre-qualification process through an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) to identify eligible suppliers of virtual hosting solutions for enterprise-scale, on-premises x86 environments across Government of Canada data centers and edge locations. This ITQ, solicitation number BPM025958/33871, is not a competitive bidding event and no contract will be awarded at this stage; its sole purpose is to establish a pool of qualified respondents who may be invited to submit proposals in a subsequent Request for Proposal phase. Respondents must be Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with full ownership and control over their virtualization product, including source code, product roadmap, and direct Tier-3 support capabilities. To qualify, all eight mandatory technical criteria must be met without exception: the product must be commercially available with a documented lifecycle policy; it must align with the Protected B-level Master Minimum (PBMM) security framework across identity, device, network, workload, and data; support interoperability via standards-based RESTful APIs; demonstrate proven capability to scale to at least 10,000 virtual machines across 1,000 servers; ensure all data remains within Canada through on-premises or air-gapped deployment; and provide validated migration and disaster recovery solutions with a 30-minute Recovery Time Objective. The ITQ incorporates the SACC 2003 and CCUA 2003 standardized procurement instructions by reference and requires completion of Form 1 for ISV attestation and Form 2 for response submission. No pricing, funding details, or contract values are disclosed, as financial terms will be defined in the future RFP. Submissions are due by June 26, 2026, and must be sent by email; there are no page limits, but incomplete or non-compliant responses will be disqualified. The government retains full authority to evaluate, disqualify, or reject respondents based solely on adherence to the mandatory criteria. There is no requirement for security clearances at this stage, no socioeconomic set-asides, no UEI or CAGE code requirement, and the sole entity identifier is the Procurement Business Number. Performance is expected across Canada and globally, with no specific delivery location defined, and the anticipated contract term could reach up to ten years, though firm periods and options remain undetermined.