The Department of the Taoiseach has issued a tender for the management of 30 servers across a 220-strong workforce in what could be a lucrative deal with a potential lifetime of between one and three years.
According to the tender document, the department wishes to enter into a contract for technical onsite and telephone support for Windows 2000/2003 and Active Directory across at least 27 servers.
The period of the contract will be for a minimum of one year. However, depending on the proposals received, the department says it will consider awarding the contract for a period up to a maximum of three years.
According to the documents, the department operates a switched local area network using fibre and Cat5 cabling in Government Buildings.
There are two Windows 2003 domain-controller servers, two Windows 200 servers operating as file and printer servers (clustered with a storage area network) for the department and one Windows 2003 proxy server.
The department also operates seven Windows 2000 servers running Lotus Domino 5. Two of these servers are mail servers in a Lotus Domino cluster. In addition there are a number of other Windows servers hosting various applications.
The department operates a Windows 2000 Professional desktop environment for around 220 users, using applications such as Microsoft Office for productivity and Lotus Notes as the mail application.
The tender request is the latest in a series of tenders by the Government aimed at upgrading its IT infrastructure. For example, it follows a major multimillion-euro tender issued by the ICT Unit at the Houses of the Oireachtas that will see civil servants, senators and TDs kitted out with more than 1,400 desktop and notebook computers as well as a monster consignment of more than 40 servers.
In May, a tender notice was issued by the Government seeking more than 200 broadband connections for the homes and constituency offices of TDs in order to facilitate remote access.
By John Kennedy
