Questions and Answers for Request for Proposal # Q1) What applications are running on each of the physical servers?

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1 Questions and Answers for Request for Proposal #03511 Q1) What applications are running on each of the physical servers? A1) See answers in 5 th column: Waterloo 2200 WIN 2003/2008/2012 Physical Files Wump 1000 WIN 2003/2008/2012 Physical Files Yooks 300 WIN 2003/2008/2012 Physical Files Zax 60 WIN 2003/2008/2012 Physical SSL VPN Thing1 125 MAC OS Physical File Axle Thing2 250 MAC OS Physical Photo Zummers 10 WIN 2003/2008/2012 Physical DC Q2) Also, which of these are NOT in the DC office? A2) Zummers Q3) Is the requested training to be formal classroom or on-site training based on the installed solution? A3) On-site training Q4) Do does the bare-metal restore mean system state or something else? A4) Yes but also the ability to restore a virtual machine to a physical server. Q5) What is the total amount of consumed storage for EGPAF? A5) The Data Sizing listed in Appendix 1 in the RFP is 6TB. However, EGPAF also has 8TB of video files stored on a NAS that would be appropriate with a long-term archive solution.

2 EGPAF s primary concern is the data listed in Appendix 1, however, vendors are welcome to address the NAS data as a separate component. Q6) What are the currently used storage protocols? A6) iscsi Q7) What is the current LAN topology and may we have a diagram of it? A7) See RFP Appendix 1; due to security concerns, whoever is awarded the project will be provided with a copy. Q8) What are the consumed capacities of the database systems? A8) 500GB Q9) What is the file server capacity and use per site? A9) 3TB use in DC Q10) What is the NAS video archive capacity and usage? A10) 8TB (see Q&A5) Q11) Is the NAS mirror that is depicted synchronous or asynchronous? A11) asynchronous Q12) What is the NAS connection protocol? NFS, CiFS, etc.? A12) SMB, AFB, and iscsi Q13) What are the NAS devices physical locations? A13) DC office, and an IT staffperson s home Q14) What type of environment is the West Coast office s servers and network equipment hosted in? A server closet, datacenter, table-top, etc.? A15) Network closet

3 Q15) Is there available space and power at West Coast for additional equipment if needed? A15) Yes Q16) The RFP indicates that the current Asigra cloud solution is being retired due to the desire for a "more modern solution. Can you detail any particular requirement that the Asigra solution did not offer that are either highly desirable or must-haves in a new backup system? A16) The current Asigra retention options lack flexibility to take a point in time archive or a full local backup, and are limited. Q17) The current backup size is listed as 6TB. Does this reflect the native or compressed data footprint? A17) Fileserver data is compressed on the Windows environments (3TB); the rest is uncompressed. Q18a) Cloud compatibility is referenced in the RFP but no requirement is provided. What is EGPAF s position on redundancy and data distribution? A18a) A critical component is offsite storage of the backup; we would like the solution to have the flexibility to back up to the cloud. Q18b) Is a cloud component desirable or mandated? A18b) No; dependent on the solution proposed Q18c) Is the use of both EGPAF sites desirable or mandated? A18c) No; dependent on the solution proposed Q19a) Should Disaster Recovery (DR) components be considered within the scope of this RFP, in addition to the core backup solution? A19a) It can be but should be clearly separated and identified as such. Q19b) If so, should DR documentation and testing be included in deliverables?

4 A19b) Yes Q19c) Would DR plans be required to be tested by vendor on a regular time frame? A19c) Either by the vendor or by EGPAF Q20) The RFP details the existing cloud backup in a North Carolina data center with the option of standing up a backup environment in that data center. Is the same type of Disaster Recovery desired or required in the new solution? A20) An offsite backup component is required. Q21) Please clarify the distinction between data to be backed up versus data that is subject to long term archiving, if indeed there is such a distinction within the context of the desired backup platform. What percentage of total data does the long-term archive data constitute? A21) The data to be backed up is the 6TB total listed in the RFP. EGPAF also has video files stored on the NAS of 8TB that would be appropriate for a long-term archive solution. Q22a) The existing retention policies of 7-days onsite and 30-days cloud is detailed in the RFP. What is the desired retention policy for the new solution? A22a) We would like several options to consider 365 days, 7 daily/4 weekly/6 monthly & 180 days, 7 daily/4 weekly/6 monthly; 90 days; 7 daily/4 weekly/3 monthly. Q22b) Are multi-year retentions for some or all data desirable or required? A22b) Desirable Q23) What is the strategy of the tape backup system on the file server, which augments the Asigra system? What is done with the tapes and what is the rotation strategy? What, if any, component of this strategy needs to be replicated in the new solution? A23) No component of this tape backup system needs to be replicated in the new solution. Q24) In the introduction you mention twelve offices in Africa with additional sub-offices. Will the African locations be supported in this solution? If so, to what extent?

5 A24) No, though it should offer expansion capabilities should we decide to implement this in the future. Q25) In the introduction, you mention gaps in the existing disaster recovery solution. Can you detail the gaps? A26) The current Asigra retention options lack flexibility to take a point in time archive or a full local backup, and are limited. Q27) The RFP stipulates a Time To Delivery date of August 1 st. This would only allow 15 business days from award to project completion. Are you flexible with the delivery date if equipment or software lead times and scheduling would require additional time? A27) Yes Q28) Restore to Baremetal, doe EGPAF refer to the restoration of the virtualized infrastructure? If everything is virtualized, why would you need to restore to bare metal? A28) There may be a situation where a particular server(s) would need to be restored to a physical server. Q29a) In section under Enterprise wide backup and restore capability for the following, the RFP provides a list. The List refers to Application but does not specify which application? What are the most mission critical applications? A29a) We have at least 8 mission critical database applications. Q29b) What is the ranking? A29b) The vendor will work with EGPAF on determining the ranking. Q30) Backing up Open and Locked files usually requires an agent. MySQL has no agent. How would you like us to address this? A30) We no longer have MySQL. Q31) Are the Mass Storage Types part of this solution? A31) Yes, large disk volumes/arrays will be used. Q32) How many Backup/Archive Storage Tiers should be part of this solution? A32) The vendor will work with EGPAF on determining the ranking. Q33) What Mass Storage systems? A33) Standard large disk volumes/arrays

6 Q34) What Media Types? A34) File, not tape Q35a) Allow for multi-domain/multi-forest level setups. How many? A35a) Only 1 at this time. It s possible we may implement this setup in the future, so it should have this capability. Q35b) What are the domain functional levels? A35b) Windows Server 2003 Q35c) What are the trust configurations? A35c) N/A Q36) Compression technology s ability to compress depends in part on the data type. What is the current breakdown of data type to quantity used across the current 6TB infrastructure? A36) Approximately 3TB of general files (PDF s, Office docs, etc), 1TB of photos, 500GB of databases, 500GB of Apple Mac files; 500GB system files (OS, etc) Q37a) Based on a design for 5 years - What is your Data Retention Policy? A37a) Up to 5 years Q37b) Do you want to maximize the one time capital expenditure (buy everything up front) or purchase what you need and receive budgetary numbers for estimated future upgrades? A37b) Maximize the one time capital expenditure Q38a) Growth Rate 15% on 6 TB of Data for 5 Years - This would yield a total capacity of approximately 12 TB. Ergo, EGPAF is planning on only doubling your capacity requirements over 5 years. As the current industry average is doubling every 1.5 years, how is EGPAF avoiding the data explosion? We would expect a more likely scenario of required TB of capacity in order to meet the 5 Year requirement. A38a) Vendors may provide several options based on different growth rates and assumptions. Q38b) With such a small growth rate, why is the concern about deduplication and compression? A38b) To keep offsite/cloud storage costs to a minimum, and to reduce backup times. Q38c) What are your target RPO and RTO? A38c) We would like the minimum time in keeping with an affordable method.

7 Q38d) What is the time to restore target? A38d) We would like the minimum time in keeping with an affordable method. Q39a) Administrative Functionality The RFP refers to Grandfather, Father, Son: We are interpreting as: Daily Incrementals, Weekly Fulls, Archive 1 Monthly Full backup, What about Snapshots? A39a) Yes, we would like the capability of including snapshots. Q39b) What offsite products and services are currently being used? A39b) N/A Q40a) Reporting Capability - Is this to provide backup as service to other departments? A40a) No Q40b) Do you want to develop a chargeback model? A40b) No Q40c) Do you want to include development of a chargeback model as part of this solution A40c) No Q40d) What reporting systems/supervisor consoles do we need to integrate this solution above vcenter? A40d) If vcenter has satisfactory integration with the solution, then none. Q40e) In the 3 rd bullet under Purpose/Scope you mention the solution must last for several years. Can you define several? A40e) 5 years Q40f) In the 4 th bullet under Purpose/Scope, you mention the vaulting of specific data. Can you clarify the type of data? A40f) Currently undetermined but our data types include those in Q&A36 above. Q40g) Under training, can you confirm we will be providing training in the DC office? A40g) Yes Q41a) Network - What is the bandwidth for each WAN connection? A41a) DC is fiber 100mb; LA is T1 Q41b) What are the LAN speeds/san speeds A41b) LAN is GB, SAN is 10GB

8 Q41c) What are you currently using for a WAN optimizer? A41c) Riverbed Steelhead Q41d) What are the IOPS requirements during backup? A41d) We have not measured this. Q42a) Current backup system specs & configuration Asigra based enterprise cloud backup and Requirement What is their current global de-duplication ratio? A42a) Not applicable because the solution should be based on current technology, not the current setup. Q42b) What compression ratio do they currently get for their data? A42b) Not applicable because the solution should be based on current technology, not the current setup. Q43) Asigra runs on a custom built appliance - Typically, industry best practices would call for RAID 6. Can you confirm? A43 ) Yes, 8 x 1GB in a Raid 5 Q44) What is your retention policy? A44) See RFP section on Current backup procedure. Q45) Is the data provided (Data Sizing Table) showing how much data is protected or how much data you are consuming on the appliance and actually replicating to the cloud? A45) It is an inventory of our systems and the amount of storage each one currently uses Q46) You highlight Asigra s ability to stand up the environment out of the data center in Raleigh - Is this a critical feature requirement of the solution requested? A47) It is critical to have an offsite backup component. Q48a) Current backup procedure Windows 2003 Server with a single Tape drive - how is data moved from Asigra to the Windows backup Server? A48a) Not applicable - see Q&A23. No component of this tape backup system needs to be replicated in the new solution. Q48b) How is data copied or mapped to the Windows backup server?

9 A48b) Not applicable - see Q&A23. No component of this tape backup system needs to be replicated in the new solution. Q48c) For the tape drive - What is the currently backup window? A48c) Not applicable - see Q&A23. No component of this tape backup system needs to be replicated in the new solution. Q48d) How long does it to perform their current backups? A48d) Not applicable - see Q&A23. No component of this tape backup system needs to be replicated in the new solution.