Private cloud hosting services for mict seta – 5-Year contract

• MICT SETA is considering hosting its business systems in a private cloud.
• MICT SETA is a public entity established under the Skills Development Act, responsible for skills development in the Media, Information and Communication Technologies sector.
• The organisation is on a digital transformation journey; hosting workloads in a private cloud aims to increase agility and innovation.
• The national footprint includes offices in Gauteng (Midrand head office), KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), Eastern Cape (East London), Western Cape (Cape Town), Free State (Bloemfontein), and North-West (Klerksdorp).
• The technology architecture includes SD-WAN (CISCO Meraki), Microsoft 365 A5, Azure AD, Mimecast, third-party connectivity, and hosting on Microsoft Azure and other platforms.
• The network comprises approximately 260 nodes, including user devices, network devices, and web applications.

• RFI Issue Date: 03 July 2026.
• Closing Date and Time: Friday, 17 July 2026 at 11:00 AM.
• No briefing session is scheduled (N/A).

• For all queries, clarifications, and submissions: Email [email protected].
• Supply Chain Management contact: Tel +27 11 207 2600.
• Address: MICT SETA Head Office, 19 Richards Drive, Gallagher Convention Centre, Gallagher House, Level 3 West Wing, Midrand, 1685.

• Submit one soft copy via email to [email protected].
• The closing date is Friday, 17 July 2026 at 11:00 AM. Late submissions will not be considered.
• Incomplete submissions will invalidate your response.
• You must include the following returnable information in your submission:
• Supplier name.
• National Treasury (CSD) supplier number.
• Postal address.
• Telephone number.
• Email address.
• Contact person.
• Cell number.
• Signature of bidder.
• Service providers interested in participating must confirm their intent within three (3) business days of receiving the RFI by emailing [email protected] with the subject line 'Intent to Respond for Cloud Hosting Services RFI'.

• You must submit one soft copy.
• Your submission must include completed fields for supplier name, CSD number, postal address, telephone, email, contact person, cell number, and signature.
• Late and incomplete submissions will be invalid.

Service providers must have experience in private cloud services, government/public sector experience preferred; must operate or utilize South African hosting facilities; must provide three references for similar implementations; should have certified cloud engineers and support major cloud platforms.

Scope: Provision of private cloud hosting services, migration, security, disaster recovery, monitoring, training, support, and maintenance for five (5) years.

Key Requirements:

• Support implementation of the MICT SETA Digital Strategy.
• Modernize legacy systems and facilitate cloud-native applications, automation, and scalable infrastructure.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and better user experience for stakeholders.
• Provide enterprise-grade cybersecurity: encryption, firewalls, threat detection, IAM, compliance with data protection law.
• Scale services based on demand.
• Offer built-in disaster recovery, automatic backups, and geo-redundant storage.
• Ensure data is hosted locally for data sovereignty.
• Provision via Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) based on a 3-tier hosting arrangement: Primary (Production), Secondary (failover), and Disaster Recovery.
• Configure resource groups, virtual networks, subnets, IAM, governance policies, compliance configurations, and cost management tools.
• Migrate identified workloads (applications, databases, storage) to the Private Cloud.
• Provide compute, storage, and backup solutions (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
• Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery setup.
• Configure firewalls, DDoS protection, and security center monitoring.
• Implement data encryption (at rest and in transit).
• Ensure compliance with POPIA, ISO 27001, and government cybersecurity frameworks.
• Provide 24/7 proactive monitoring and alerting.
• Deliver monthly performance reports and health checks.
• Provide ongoing support with SLAs.
• Train MICT SETA IT staff on cloud hosting management, cost control, and security.
• Provide complete technical documentation and handover.

Current Environment:

• The MICT SETA technology architecture includes SD-WAN (CISCO Meraki), Microsoft 365 A5, Azure AD, Mimecast, third-party connectivity (IPSEC, APN, VPN), and hosting on Microsoft Azure and other platforms.
• The network has approximately 260 nodes, including ~175 user devices, ~75 network devices, ~10 web applications (laptops, MacBooks, iPads, network nodes).
• Detailed current hosting environment table lists systems (ERP, Database, Web Server, Print Server, Website, E-recruitment, ILMS, etc.) with specifications for vCPU, HDD, RAM, and operating system.
• A future Data Lake project is planned.

Project Deliverables:

• Fully configured private cloud environment with VMs, VNets, security policies.
• Migration plan and execution.
• Security implementation (firewalls, NSGs, encryption, compliance settings).
• Monitoring dashboard with Log Analytics, alerts, and reporting.
• Training, documentation, user guides, SOPs, and workshops for IT personnel.
• Monthly reports on usage, cost, incidents, and uptime.

• Your RFI response must include:
• An overview of your product/solution in relation to MICT SETA's requirements, current environment, and project scope, covering technical architecture, service offering, and implementation approach.
• Budgetary cost estimates with a breakdown of infrastructure hosting, compute, storage, backup, disaster recovery, security services, migration services, licensing (where applicable), and ongoing managed services. Clearly state all assumptions and exclusions.
• Details on personal information protection (adherence with POPIA).
• Service Level Agreements, including key requirements, support response times, and any tiered support offerings.

• The RFI includes a vendor questionnaire requesting details such as:
• Vendor name, parent company, address, contact person.
• Years in operation, years in the property management industry (note: likely a document error; context is cloud hosting).
• Related industry certifications.
• Number of certified cloud engineers employed.
• Supported cloud platforms.
• Description of South African hosting facilities.
• Whether you operate your own data centre or use a third-party facility.
• Details of your Disaster Recovery facility.
• Number of years providing private cloud services.
• Number of government or public sector customers.
• Three references for similar implementations.
• Average implementation duration.
• Description of your migration methodology, monitoring platform, change management process, backup solution, and Security Operations capability.

• Services must be supplied in compliance with government ICT standards and cybersecurity policies.
• Ensure compliance with POPIA, ISO 27001, and government cybersecurity frameworks.
• The RFI document states a B-BBEE minimum level 3 requirement.

• In your RFI response, detail identified risks and proposed mitigation measures for:
• Migration risks.
• Operational risks.
• Security risks.
• Business continuity risks.
• Vendor dependency risks.

• This RFI is a request for information only and creates no contractual obligation for MICT SETA.
• MICT SETA is not committed to pay any costs incurred in preparing or submitting a response.
• The RFI document is confidential and proprietary to MICT SETA. You must not disclose, duplicate, distribute, or disseminate it or its information without MICT SETA's express written consent.

• MICT SETA will conduct a preliminary review and evaluation of cloud hosting services based on the RFI responses.