With this procurement procedure, the contracting authority intends to conclude a framework agreement for the provision of PaaS services for AI applications on a powerful, secure, and sovereign cloud platform with two economic operators.

LOT-0001
BMDS-KI-Platform.
The subject of performance is the provision of a cloud-agnostic AI platform as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which serves as a component of a modular, cross-cloud infrastructure. The services include the provision and operation of a powerful, secure, and DVC-oriented cloud platform, particularly concerning the appropriate use of open standards, open interfaces, or open-source components. The platform provides a uniform operating environment for containerized applications and AI workloads and supports multi-cloud and hybrid deployment scenarios. It must ensure the secure and reproducible operation of AI applications, provide GPU-supported computing environments, and support MLOps pipelines. Integration of existing on-premises systems, which are centrally managed, must be enabled. As initial applications, the solutions KIPITZ and the AI application to accelerate planning and approval procedures are to be operated on the platform. Additional applications can be added during the contract term. The platform must provide uniform mechanisms for identity and role management, encryption (e.g., BYOK/HYOK), logging, auditing, as well as for change and exit processes. Further information concerning the subject matter of the contract can be found in the tender documents, particularly in the specification of services and the draft contract. ESTIMATED VALUE, MAXIMUM VALUE, FINANCING FUNDS The estimated contract volume of this framework agreement is EUR 208.00 million net over a maximum contract term of four years. The maximum value of the framework agreement is EUR 249.60 million net over a maximum contract term of four years. Funds of EUR 200 million net are secured, of which there is a justified expectation that financing amounting to EUR 195 million net can be ensured. Financing amounting to EUR 49.5 million is still uncertain. There is no entitlement to the awarding of individual orders to a specific extent. The information is provided solely for the purpose of transparency in public procurement law. Bidders must take this into account in their calculations. AUTHORIZED AND ENTITLED ENTITIES The Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization, is both the contracting authority and the authorized and entitled entity. It can issue individual orders for itself and for the entitled entities within the federal administration. This includes all parts of the federal administration, including ITZBund. Individual releases are issued by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernization for these entitled entities, which are exclusively authorized and obliged by the individual order declared for them. Additionally, govdigital eG is authorized and entitled. It can issue individual orders for itself and its members. Individual releases are carried out by govdigital eG for its members, who are exclusively authorized and obliged by the individual order declared for them. NOTICE ON PARTICIPATION ELIGIBILITY Economic operators from third countries not covered by an international agreement with the European Union that guarantees equal and mutual access to public procurement (“non-covered countries”) can be excluded from participating in this procurement procedure. The decision on the admission of such economic operators is made on a case-by-case basis by the contracting authority and is based on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (especially judgment in case C-652/22 - Kolin). Participation applications and offers that include subcontractors or bidding consortium members from non-covered countries are also subject to separate review and may be excluded or adjusted in the evaluation.