Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2021-10-19
Buyer: Ilmatieteen laitos
Country: FI
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Competitive procedure with negotiation
CPV classification: 30200000
Submission deadline: 2021-11-16
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: High performance computing solution for operational numerical modeling. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is carrying out this procurement to replace its existing systems used in operational numerical weather prediction, ocean circulation modeling, wind wave prediction and atmospheric composition modeling.
The procurement will be for a turnkey HPC solution that includes all components and services that are required to build, deliver, install and operate HPC systems providing 24/7/365 services. The HPC consists of two separate systems installed in two separate computer rooms with no shared components, including but not limited to computing, interconnect, system and user software components, high performance storage, power supply, cooling and services.
The contracting authority FMI (hereinafter "contracting authority" or "FMI") requests that candidates send a request to participate in the negotiated procedure in accordance with this notice, appendices and instructions published.
The high performance computing (HPC) solution has a critical role for FMI operations. Therefore, the emphasis is put on the experience of the vendor in delivering similar solutions and the maturity of the solution making it suitable for reliable operations. This is in contrast with many research oriented HPC procurements where emphasis is put on the novelty of the solution and peak performance.
Current HPC solution consists of two Cray systems in a fully redundant configuration with no shared components in two separate computer rooms. The main workload and the computationally most demanding workload is Harmonie-Arome NWP model which is run in collaboration with MetCoOp partners Sweden and Norway, every hour for nowcasting and every hour also for ensemble prediction 24/7/365. Other important 24/7 workloads include SILAM atmospheric composition model, NEMO ocean circulation model and WAM wind wave model. It should be noted that only Harmonie-Arome is representing the operational workload in the benchmarks.
The procurement is subject to the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts (1397/2016). The procurement will be implemented through the negotiated procedure referred to in sections 34–35 of the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts. The application of negotiated procedure is justified due to: the contract cannot be awarded without prior negotiations, because of specific circumstances related to it´s nature, complexity or legal and financial for, or because of the risks pertaining thereto.
The views expressed by the contracting authority in the appendices listed above should only be considered preliminary and there will be changes to the contents of the documents during the procurement process.
The mandatory requirements concerning the procurement (the system and after sales service) are defined in:
The eligibility of tenderers is assessed in this procurement using the ESPD standard form and other minimum requirements concerning tenderers in section: other terms of the call for tenders, parts marked with "A" and "B".
The equipment to be acquired is a one-time purchase. The estimated operational after-sales service period for the HPC system is 5 years. The contracting authority reserves the right to two (2) separate option periods of one (1) year each.