In June 2007, the ministry issued a Joint Solution Request for Proposals (JSRFP) for hosting services and data centre services.
This project, known as the Strategic Transformation and Mainframe Services (STMS) project focussed on the provision of IT hosting and data centre services and transferring associated risks (financial, operational and resource specific) to the private sector, while retaining oversight and management of the business. Some of the major business benefits include:
- replacement of aging and increasingly expensive technology infrastructure;
- access to technical resources and expertise;
- more than 50 % energy cost savings gained through server virtualization and by consolidating multiple data centres across the province into just two;
- data centres located away from major earthquake fault lines or flood plains; and
- increasing disaster recovery capability by having one data centre in Calgary and one in Kamloops (available in 2011)
On March 30, 2009 the Province and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) each signed an agreement with EDS Advanced Solutions Inc. (EAS); the Province for the provision of managed hosting and data centre services, and ICBC for data centre services.
The services provided under the agreement are now known as Hosting Solutions BC. The terms of the agreement are 12 years for managed hosting and 15 years for data centre services, with possible extension for both up to 20 years. Strategic Infrastructure is responsible for on-boarding new BPS entities to the contract.
- Master Services Agreement (PDF, 10.9MB)
Hosting Services:
managed hardware, software and support of mainframe and midrange computing, including storage and backup services.
Data Centre Services:
provision of the data centre building, network, power/cooling and hardware necessary to house computing infrastructure, often referred to as co-location services.
Environmental Benefits:
Is projected to reduce overall power consumption by up to 50% or more.
Contract ensures capacity can be re-distributed to maximize power efficiency of data centres.
Pricing model incents buyers to reduce overall power consumption.
Allowances in contract to migrate to new technology that will reduce overall carbon footprint.
