The Forsyth County School System's Purchasing Department would like you to supply us with a Proposal for Additional Wide Area Network Services. Pricing shall remain firm for one year after award. The Forsyth County School System is tax exempt. Forsyth County Schools (FCS) invites proposals for a dedicated dark-fiber and managed "lit" Wide-Area-Network (WAN) infrastructure per the specifications herein. Service must be in accordance with all applicable laws, codes, and FCS Purchasing Regulations. For purposes of this evaluation, FCS will be analyzing cost of both a Dark Fiber Option and Managed "Lit" Services in accordance with ERate requirements. For a Dark Fiber Service, Forsyth County School System (FCS) is accepting proposals for a pair (two strands) of dark fiber - exclusively for the use by FCS - including 24x7x365 maintenance and covers all installation, staging, and testing. This customer handoff should have no competing/conflicting third-party light, with the entirety of the fiber's bandwidth available to FCS. Though not required, FCS may award additional points for a dark fiber solution that has one strand from each school/site terminate at DC1 and the other at DC2 (with those locations being noted in the attachment titled Secondary WAN Locations). For a Managed "Lit" Service, FCS is accepting proposals for an Ethernet-based, Additional Wide-Area-Network transport service at the native LAN speed of 10 Gbps (minimum) Ethernet to deliver bandwidth to school locations, which includes 24x7x365 maintenance and monitoring and covers all installation, staging and testing. This 10 Gbps customer handoff should have the ability to be administratively adjusted to values at/between 2 Gbps and 10 Gbps via a customer-accessible portal. Additionally, Customer has three locations - designated DC1, DC2, and DC3 in the attachment titled Secondary WAN Locations - that will require a 100 Gbps handoff, with FCS having the ability to administratively adjust values to/between 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps via a customer-accessible portal. FCS is interested in solutions to segment the district and allow for an increase overall capacity via a Second WAN or other market-based solutions within ERATE requirements. FCS is interested in Dark and Lit (Managed) Fiber to connect all sites to the CO and all school to each other. Please provide in writing any solutions your organization may propose regarding the satisfaction of this desire (as an option) and include as much information as possible regarding the structure and all implementation, support considerations. There will not be a public opening. All proposals shall be received and time stamped, by the FCS purchasing department prior to the designated closing date and time. Any proposal received and time stamped after the designated closing time will be deemed late and not considered for award. FCS cannot be responsible for lateness of receipt due to delivery delays or mistakes made by a contracted delivery courier. Awarded contract will be valid for one year from the date of award, which will begin July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. Contract may be extended in one-year increments up to four additional years if mutually agreeable to both parties.
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