The tender invitation concerns procurement of a national data storage-system distributed among 2 locations with a minimum of 5 petabyte net storage capacity, with high-performing internal communication and a policy-driven storage control system which supports both file-, block- and object-storage.

The goal is the upgrade and replace the existing national infrastructure for research data. The existing infrastructure consists of a data storage-system located at the University of Oslo, in addition to a smaller resource in Tromsø. It has been decided upon an architecture that requires a 2-site configuration for data security (by way of data replication). The University of Tromsø will be the first of the locations, while the second will be decided at a later point in time (likely by the conclusion of the procurement).

The data-infrastructure is a general-purpose research infrastructure and is not adapted to specific disciplines or competencies. The infrastructure will be attached to two HPC systems (HPC A1 and B2). The interconnect between the HPC systems and the storage-system will be secured in a separate procurement.

The planned installation date for NIRD is 1.11.2016. The primary goal of the proposed solution and the criteria for a successful tenderer will be to maximise the scientific productivity in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO).