Tender update: July refresh outage and EU cluster

Dear Tom, Thank you for the update to your tender response, which was submitted through the portal this morning. I have logged it against your bid in the clarification log. The update states that the nightly refresh outage last Tuesday and Wednesday affected the EU cluster that Kielderside would be using. Anil has read it and has a follow-up from the security side. As this affects the evaluation, please confirm in writing, through the portal, what the cause was and what has been done since. All bidders will see the answer to any clarification, so please keep it to facts that you are content to have on the record. The evaluation timetable is unchanged. The deadline for clarification responses remains noon on the day stated in the tender documents. Kind regards, Sarah Dodds Category Manager, Procurement Kielderside Growth Agency

Hi Sarah, hi Anil, Thanks for logging that so quickly. I wanted you to hear about the outage from us rather than find it later, so we put it in the update ourselves. To be clear on what I can say today: the nightly refresh did not complete on time last Tuesday and Wednesday, and the EU cluster was one of the places it hit. I've kept the wording in the portal update to what we know. I'm not going to guess at root cause in an email, as I'd rather you had it properly from the people who ran the fix. I've copied Theo, our Solutions Engineer. He's pulling together the post-incident review and will make sure it's evidenced rather than just described. Anil, I understand that's what you'll want to see. Theo will put it through the portal so it goes on the record in the right way, and I'll check with him on timing and come back to you today. If there's anything else you need from me on the commercial side while this is open, shout. No drama from our end, we'd just like it handled properly. Cheers, Tom

Dear Tom, Thank you. To confirm the position on our side: 1. Anil has formally asked for the post-incident review covering the refresh outage, as it relates to the EU cluster. 2. Please submit that through the portal, addressed to the clarification log, and not by email. Anything sent outside the portal cannot be taken into account. 3. Your update and this request will be visible to all bidders in the usual anonymised form, so please check the document contains nothing you would not want shared. I am not able to extend the deadline for one bidder, so please let me know promptly if you expect any difficulty meeting it. Anil will assess the review when it is received, and I will update the log once it is in. Kind regards, Sarah Dodds