Wide Area Network (WAN) Services

Description

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to inform the market of the potential opportunity for the provision of wide area network (WAN) services and the MoJ’s intention to engage with potential suppliers through an online supplier briefing event to be held on 21 March 2023. The WAN service will deliver secure connectivity for authorised devices at MoJ’s locations and those of its service recipients. Any contract for WAN services will be entered into with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The services will be provided for the benefit of both MoJ and its service recipients (including executive agencies, arms’ length bodies, government companies and other entities to whom MoJ provides services). A list of the potential service recipients will be included in the procurement documents. The scope of the WAN service includes: • WAN Connectivity – Secure connectivity to corporate services; • Gateway Services – Secure access to other network domains, cross-government services, and the Internet; and • Core Network Services – Services necessary for the delivery of the end-to-end network services. WAN Connectivity is comprised of: • SD-WAN overlay services including co-management capability; • VPN and Internet circuits; • Enterprise grade broadband; • Supply and/or maintenance of CPE; • Optimised cloud access, supporting SaaS peering, edge co-location and direct access models; • Carrier Internet services, supporting resilient access to SaaS and IaaS services; • Developing and implementing standardised service offerings. Gateway Services are comprised of: • Take-over, transition, management and maintenance of: - services that encrypt LAN traffic between data centres; - load balancers; and - integration of RAS; • Secure connection of private VPN services to the Internet via perimeter networks at a transition / peering facility; and • Provision of a secure, resilient network-to-network interconnect gateway. Core Network Services are comprised of: • DNS (primarily for network infrastructure that interfaces with MoJ’s DNS); • Services that interface and make use of MoJ’s PKI service; • Interfacing with the MoJ’s NAC service; • A secure and authenticated master time reference; • Gateway Services for the MoJ’s non-live environment; and • Integration with MoJ’s IPAM and DHCP services. It is anticipated that the procurement will commence following the online supplier briefing event, via MoJ’s eSourcing system at https://ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk. Interested suppliers must be registered on this site and have signed confidentiality agreements to obtain the procurement documents. (Confidentiality agreements are not required for attendance at the supplier briefing event.) Value excluding VAT: £100m to £165m The actual contract value will be dependent on whether any extension options are applied and the extent to which projects are commissioned. Lot 1: The purpose of this Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to inform the market of the potential opportunity for the provision of WAN services and the MoJ's intention to engage with potential suppliers through a supplier briefing event to be held on 21 March 2023. In the first instance, suppliers should register on the MoJ eSourcing Portal at https://ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk/ and, within the eSourcing Portal, register for event 'PQQ_329 - Evolve WAN Services - Pre-Procurement Supplier Engagement'. Information for prospective suppliers will be provided within the eSourcing Portal, including full details of the market engagement event, and a suite of material relevant to the procurement including a confidentiality agreement. There is also a messaging feature for any questions to MoJ and for receiving any further updates. Suppliers will not be required to sign the confidentiality agreement in order to attend the market engagement event but will need to sign the confidentiality agreement if they wish to have access to the procurement. The MoJ is currently in the process of securing the necessary approvals to go to market to procure the WAN services. This PIN does not formally signify the beginning of a procurement and does not constitute a commitment by the MoJ to undertake any market engagement events or procurement exercises. When the MoJ decides to formally commence the procurement for WAN services, a separate contract notice will be issued in the Find a Tender Service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search) Any resulting procurement will be managed electronically via the MoJ eSourcing Portal (https://ministryofjusticecommercial.bravosolution.co.uk/).