Today I saw a saw a tender notice by the Kerala State IT Mission for setting up a state data center for the government of Kerala. The notice reads
Inviting competitive bids from qualified bidders against revised request for proposal (RFP) for appointment of an agency for Design, Site Preparation, Supply, Installation, Maintenance and Operations of Physical and IT Infrastructure of a State Data Centre in Kerala, Thiruvananathapuram, for the Government of Kerala.
Tender Fee : Rs 5000/-
Earnest Money Deposit : Rs 5,000,000 (50 Lakhs)
The detailed tender notice also asks for 3 years experience in managing a 2500Sqft datacenter.
I am not a Data Center expert, but I did some research about the nuances of setting up a Datacenter, called up a few friend who are working in data centers and who has experience in setting up these. My findings follows.
Setting up a a datacenter involves purchase of high value equipments.
Majority of the “non technology” work is about setting up power delivery systems, Air conditioning, fire safety and access control devices.
Once you have all these, then you need skilled manpower to manage the rest, and that’s something you have plenty in Kerala. Most of the datacenters around the world are supported from Kerala.
Now the question is, why the deposit money of 50 Lakhs. Is it to ward off smaller companies in Kerala who might have the know how to do it.
Could we have split the tender into different tenders, for equipment purchase, setting up physical space, providing operations support etc ?
Why is it that companies with more turnover gets more points in the tender evaluation process ?
Are we overlooking the security aspects of a datacenter that might hold sensitive government data
I am pretty sure only Reliance, Tata and Bharati will be bidding for this.
And why do these folks always write a stupid clause in every tender ?
“Kerala State IT Mission reserves the right to reject any or all the bids in whole or in part at any time without mentioning any reason thereof”
Can a government body openly say that we are not accountable for our actions ?
You are partially right here. They are purposefully trying to drive away any company that do not have the financial stability to work on such large projects. But think about the practical side. A smaller company may be technically qualified to do the job. But they would take large financial risks to execute the project, and there is a good possibility of them overlooking many unseen overheads which might even stall the project.
Comment by Roshin Roy — October 3, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
Setting up a data center is not rocket science. Its as simple as setting up a good computer lab, just that you will be dealing with more costlier equipments and need qualified manpower to operate those equipments. We have got that manpower in Kerala, and that too plenty.
This high value tender could have been split into smaller tenders. If they need a router that costs a crore, float a separate tender for that. Why mix the equipment purchase with skilled manpower requirement.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — October 3, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
It’s true that goventment bodies do not entertain small companies in acquiring govenrment project. I think the real reason for evading small companies is, government officials do not have idea or expertise on the actual work involved, and they just try to play it safe by giving it to some big companies. They will propose a project that is best suited for their profit maximisation. It’s a real shame that the rulers of a state that supply best man power in the world do not know what exactly need to be done. They have no idea about the actual requirements, which gives a fantastic opportunity for biggies to maximise profit.
In my views, the actual procedure to set up a project like this is: Hire a bunch of highly talented and competitive experts (This work should be outsourced to an highly reputed manpower consulting company), tell them to prepare a detailed plan and seperate it into different small projects, and invite seperate tenders for each work. An expert should be in-charge of each small project. Each project will have a seperate manager and they should be accountable for the completion of work in their domain. This method will ensure maximum accountability, cost-effectiveness and efficienty.
Here, government has no actual control over the cost. Big companies will be charging huge profit out of it, and the public money will be wasted. Highly talented startups, small and medium companies in Kerala will never get a chance to show what they are capable of. The government of Kerala is betraying the IT companies in Kerala.
Comment by Sukhesh — October 3, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
Fotgot to mention: Hiring experts is the most critical part here. And background verification and competency analysis is the most critical part here. Should be done very carefully.
Comment by Sukhesh — October 3, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
I think setting up of data center in kerala will not be feasible due to frequent power failures. Even USA’s largest data center, The Planet has failed several times due to power issues. I think Infosys will be bidding for this project.
Comment by Anand — October 4, 2009 @ 3:59 pm
“Most of the datacenters around the world are supported from Kerala.”
I am not convinced. How could that be true? It will be exorbitantly costly to run a data-center in Kerala, even India for that matter. With lot of power outages and high electricity costs, setting up backups will be costly. Seems unlikely.
I maybe wrong.Enlighten me if that is the case
Comment by Sujith Abraham — October 4, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
@Sujith
I did not day.. they host servers in Kerala, Data centers are remotely supported. You will see many companies in cochin and TVM providing support. My friend runs such a company.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — October 4, 2009 @ 8:14 pm
സുന്ദരന് പോസ്റ്റ്….
ഇഷ്ടമായി കെന്നി.
സംശയം വേണ്ട. ഇതേതോ കുത്തകയെ മുന്കൂട്ടി കണ്ടുകൊണ്ടുള്ള നീക്കം തന്നെയാണ്. അവരുടെ നീക്കം സഫലമാകാതെ പോകുമെന്ന് പ്രത്യാശിക്കുന്നു
Comment by santhosh kumar — October 5, 2009 @ 9:31 am
I thought I will offer my (mostly disagreeing ) comments here.
As Business Owners, you and I have the freedom to chose which Vendor to do Business with within the legal Framework . The same holds good for Government IT Agencies too. They might want to award the contract to a Vendor with expertise in setting up and operating modern data center. These are unfortunate side effects of a Free market economy .
I dont underestimate the efforts involved in executing such a huge project. It is not as simple as setting up a computer lab. It is not a simple project, but a complex project which needs multiple expertise and resources. I am not underestimating the skills and expertise of individuals . But this requires much more than that. The big companies are not expensive now. They are much cheaper than smaller companies which charge a premium billing rates. I have had opportunities to review and analyze many RFP, RFS, and Proposals (Multi year, multi million projects). The cost savings offered by big companies are much high.
Recently I was helping out a friend of mine who was trying to bid for a Project from a Government entity (10 yr project with a higher budget than this). He joined hands with couple of people who had experience in the system. After reviewing the RFS and requirements very carefully , we realized that we do not have the resources to execute such big project. Now it is going to a big Company.
What in turn could be helpful is the big company getting the project and splitting into smaller projects and engage some local players . The stakeholders of the project can demand such an action .
“Most of the datacenters around the world are supported from Kerala”
This is not true. There are supporting service companies out of Kerala. But they do not cater to the bulk of the datacenters in the world.
IBM and HP are bigger Vendors for datacenters. IBM has 400,000 + and HP 300,000+ employers. Total Kerala IT strength may be around 30,000 . Majority of data centers are operated out of South America and Canada.
Comment by Sanjay — October 5, 2009 @ 10:39 am
There is a data centre for the State Government at Palayam, Trivandrum. So many arguments it is not practical at Trivandrum, it is a highly technical job and very experienced multinational alone can do it is not tenable. Somebody who is having access to State IT department can evaluate the functioning of this data centre and compare with the tender documents.
Comment by Balanandan — October 5, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
@Sanjay
We already have a datacenter in TVM managed by local people here.
Can you please explain the “huge efforts” involved in this project ? I consulted a few data center experts before writing this post. I even got a really interesting comment from someone about the tender.
“Are they planning to start their own ISP ? Most ISPs dont have so much of infra”
Comment by Kenney Jacob — October 6, 2009 @ 7:16 am
really good suggestion.
and yes, you are right, most of the datacenters, webhosting companies are being supported by companies in Kerala, Freelance server admins, and other many more keralites working other parts of India, and abroad.
Comment by dinu — October 7, 2009 @ 9:36 pm
Hi,
I am a certfied Data center expert, and manage the datacenter for the largest Bank in the Eurozone.
Designing a Enterprise class datacenter is not as easy as designing a computer lab or a “Server Room”.
Generally, there are dedicated Datacenter design consultants that we work with, mostly in the US, who do charge a “Bomb” for this kind of work.
It includes precision cooling- Row based and not room based (Hot Aisles, Cold Aisles, rack cooling etc), precision power requirements that might exceed 10 kW per rack, with proper Backup, Fire Control systems etc.
The scene gets complicated with latest blade servers which increases the density of servers per rack…
Disaster resistance is another aspect..
So there definitely is scope for a good design consultant and one with proper exposure and knowledge.
But the major issue here what i feel is, lets say after getting this world class Enterprise datacenter designed and commissioned, are we sure that it would be used in the best way possible?
How do we make sure that the officers who handle this are technically capable, lets say we train the existing officers, what happens once they are transferred??
In the private sector that can be ensured by going after the best talent available and developing the existing talent available in the organisation.
It would be great if this was managed by some able young tech savvy officers as opposed to a Babu who happened to know the cook of the IT minister (Its our CM…right?), and got a posting here as there was ‘Scope’ for large purchases and kickbacks.
Comment by Ajai — October 15, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Also, I dont think that we have remote management of datacenters here in Kerala.
We do have server engineers who monitor and manage the servers and network equipment, but not many of them would have ever entered a Datacenter.
In our organisation, there are close to 1500 staff in IT, but not more than 15 have access to enter the datacenter!!!
Comment by Ajai — October 15, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
I forget writing my reply to Kenney’s comments. I agree with Ajai’s comments . I am not a Datacenter expert. But I have seen and evaluated multi year multi million projects at the Enterprise level. In my earlier days I use to think it was so simple. But preparing the RFP itself is a project .
In the above instance I indicated in my earlier comment, preparing the RFP and Requirement was a separate project handled by the Top company.
Data Center Design, Development project is completely different from the Operations support . Just like any major project where Development and Operational support are different and require different skillset
The typical Operational support (application, data center, server etc..) involves fixing production issues, adding patches, resolving issues etc…
I am not saying that this is something that cannot be handled by the skilled people in Kerala. But they would need the expert and the DataCenter and Project Manager to handle it .
If I were the stakeholder, the first step would have been to prepare the RFP as in the first place I need to know why I need the Datacenter ..
Comment by Sanjay — October 18, 2009 @ 9:20 am
Mr.Jacob’s observation that the massive Tender may conveniently be broken down to smaller Tenders and not have large entry barriers appears at a first look, Why Not! His observation that Data Center setting up is not a rocket science and Kerala has enough number of qualified professionals ..
Unfortunately, things are not that simple as he makes it sound. The biggest problem in large projects is the over all responsibility and SLAs(Service Level Agreements). If too many players enter the field, the possibility of blame game becomes high, leading to delay in project time cycles and cost escalations. Let us assume that that the Cabling work is provided to a small player(who may be Good at the Time of Tender Process) and who fails after the contract in executing due to some financial reasons or he could not retain his key personnel! For the Vendor, it may be some penalty, but for the project, it becomes a show stopper!
Normally in large projects, though they are awarded to one party, this party would be outsourcing to other ‘Partners’ or ‘Vendors’ most of the Jobs, but still has the overall ‘Project Management Responsibility’ contractually with them. They ensure adequate fall back precautions to meet the deadlines.
Comment by DSK Rao — November 8, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
@DSK Rao
Still I cant justify the 50 crore budget for a state datacenter.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — November 8, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
I am not sure from where you got the Rs.50.0 crore figure! If, it is true, it may be overall budget including acquiring a building ….and also running cots including salaries for 3-5 years.
Comment by DSK Rao — November 9, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
hi ,i m raj kumar,
working same field, i mean data center infrastructure,i would suggest ,you should have own data center so that,you will not depend other hosting company,
now thing is that who will prepare this ,no body is expert,i working in last 5 years in data center world,completed lots of data center setup projects.
even kerala also in Dhana laxmi bank trissur,
so if you pepole are afraid,it not possible setup a dada center in kerala,i cant digest this think.
if you have power problem, you need good power sources,like UPS good backup like 2 hr.with DG Set. In 1+1 configration.
so that you can get the uptime 99.995.its easy man,
if you required any help ,i m here only for every job,like civil,interior,UPS,PAC,Power layout,NOC,Networking,fire suppression system,Access control system,Rodent,WLD,VESDA,etc.
hire me solv you problem….my mail id is raj.kumar@choice-solutions.com
data center simplified…………..in my way…….good luck.
Comment by Raj kumar — November 21, 2009 @ 11:02 am
Hi guys,
I have been working with one of the famous Server administration companies in Cochin.
“Most of the datacenters around the world are supported from Kerala.”
Yes… this is the fact.. All the support works are remotely done from Kerala..and Banglore. We have around Six huge datacenter’s support outsourced to our company. However, there are sysamdin guys appointed at the DC just to plug in the newly provisioned servers and to check cable/power/temperature related issues.
All other works are done via KVM consoles and IPMI client(routers, loadbalancers, evault, CDP, VPN hardware tests etc.). You won’t be able to track even the orgin of mail response from the DC’s ticketing system.. They use proxy systems. So, you will be seeing the mail origin as from the DC’s IP address. So keen they are…:-;
I am familiar with clients who just started with a reseller hosting now owns their own datacenters. It may be easy to start with small scale DC resources. But to offer systems like, kVM access/server management via VPN/IPMI access/cloud, NAS, Evault backup/Lock-box/ etc.etc…. lot of research and time is required…
Moreover, it may be easy to hire techs from Kerala who knows all these stuffs
Thanks,
Comment by Keralaguy.. — December 1, 2009 @ 10:07 am
@Kenney Jacob. As a professional working in Data center space in Europe and India I think you should well reasearch before putting across your views suggesting Kerela as a leader in DC space. It’s highly immaturish comment. India doesn’t have the physical infrastrcuture yet (Power, Environment-political and climatic, shortage of skills in this space etc) to come even close to some of the Pan oceania region. I really think one should resarch before making statements.
Comment by viksdes — December 8, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
@viksdes
I did not say Kerala is a leader in DC space. All that I said is we support a lot of DCs around the world from Kerala. There is a huge difference between the sentences.
Comment by Kenney Jacob — December 8, 2009 @ 1:20 pm
Pls let me know if there any opertunity for New State Data Centers
Comment by Ram — December 30, 2009 @ 11:25 am