FOI release

SIA ICT contracts

Published 25 October 2022

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1. Request

This is a request for information that relates to the organisation’s contracts for server hardware maintenance, server virtualisation licences and maintenance, and storage area network (SAN) maintenance/support.

For each of the type of contract described above, please can you provide me with the following data. If there is more than one contract, please split the information for each separate supplier – this includes annual spend.

  1. Contract title

  2. Type of contract – is it for server hardware, virtualisation, or storage area network (SAN)?

  3. Existing/current supplier

  4. Brand – please state the brand of hardware or software

  5. Operating System / software (platform) – is it Windows, Linux, Unix, vSphere, AIX, Solaris, and so on?

  6. Annual average spend – please provide me with the most recent annual spend for this contract

  7. Contract duration – please can you also include notes if the contract includes any contract extension periods

  8. Contract expiry date

  9. Contract review date – an approximate date of when the organisation is planning to review this particular contract

  10. Purchase of servers – the month and year in which most of the servers were purchased.

  11. Number of physical servers

  12. Number of virtual servers

  13. Brief contract description – I require a brief description of the service provided under this contract. Please do not just put “maintenance”; I need at least a sentence.

  14. Contract owner – the person from within the organisation that is responsible for reviewing and renewing this particular contract. Please include their full name, job title, direct contact number and direct email address. If this service is part of a managed contract, please can you send me the contract information for this managed service including hardware brand, number of users, operating system, and contact details of the internal contact responsible for this contract.

2. Response

  1. There are 2 contracts that support these services. The SIA’s network services (infrastructure as a service back office functions and end user computing management) are hosted in Azure, underpinned by Microsoft Enterprise Agreement Number 66781542. The SIA’s customer licensing system and the infrastructure to support this system is outsourced to a third party. This contract is called SIA Digital Licensing System. Again, all services are hosted in Azure.

  2. These are Microsoft Enterprise Agreement: Licensing and hosting and SIA Digital Licensing System: managed service and hosting.

  3. The Microsoft Enterprise Agreement is issued by Microsoft via reseller Phoenix and the customer licensing system and supporting infrastructure contract is awarded to Version 1.

  4. Our server estate is Microsoft Hyper-V.

  5. The SIA uses mainly Windows with a small number of Linux.

  6. In terms of Azure costs, the SIA spends approximately £50,000 per month. This is made up of approximately £40,000 on SIA Digital Licensing System and £10,000 on Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. So annually, this is £480,000 on SIA Digital Licensing System and £120,000 on SIA services.

  7. The Microsoft Enterprise Agreement is an annual contract and the SIA Digital Licensing System runs for 5 years.

  8. 31 March 2023 (Microsoft Enterprise Agreement expiry date) and 14 December 2023 (SIA Digital Licensing System expiry date).

  9. Microsoft Enterprise Agreement – The SIA’s requirements are currently under review and SIA Digital Licensing System – commercial planning is underway now.

  10. Purchase of servers are generated on a need basis.

  11. The SIA has none.

  12. For Microsoft Enterprise Agreement – 47 and for SIA Digital Licensing System – 90.

  13. The Microsoft Enterprise Agreement is a provision of all Microsoft licences, Azure services, Azure consumption and M365 services. The SIA Digital Licensing System is hosting and management of the digital platform that provides SIA’s customer licensing system.

  14. Microsoft Enterprise Agreement: owner is the Procurement Team.

[Reference: FOI 0361]

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