Official UK procurement notice
Research Data Hosting and Storage Software Solution
Authority: Heriot-Watt University (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionHeriot-Watt University currently stores 135TB of research data in a cloud hosted and storage solution provided by Dropbox Business.
CPV: Storage management software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1Heriot-Watt University currently stores over 135TB of key dynamic research data within…Awarded
Heriot-Watt University currently stores over 135TB of key dynamic research data within a cloud hosted and storage software solution provided by Dropbox Business.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Procedure method
- Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Awarded without competition
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Direct award (no call for competition)
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 5 May 2021, 14:14 BST
- Last source update
- 30 Jul 2021, 09:15 BST
- Authority reference
HWU 2016- FTS notice number
2021/S 000-018186- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-02ad58Find a Tender
- Why no open competition
- Additional deliveries by the original supplier ordered under the strict conditions stated in the directive
- Published justification
Heriot-Watt University has entered into a contract with Dropbox Inc. in accordance with Paragraph 33 Part 4(b) of The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. Specifically, the contract pertains to purchasing additional supplies of an existing research data storage solution with relevant support and maintenance element which is cloud hosted. Any change to such a supply arrangement would oblige Heriot-Watt University to encounter a solution with different technical characteristics resulting in a high level of disproportionate technical difficulty being encountered in implementing and the subsequent operation of the system due to the challenges of transferring a large volume of critically important research data. Any file transfer process would require to be specifically designed and would require to incorporate several iterative actions and subsequent planned downtime with disruption to key research programmes. Additionally, the capacity to migrate large volumes of data would require the involvement of a third party adding to the disproportionate complexity of the process whilst increasing the risk data corruption to critical research projects.
Publisher note: (SC Ref:662263)
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dropbox | £165,000 †same award published again · counted once | — | Awarded |
| Dropbox | £165,000 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids · 1 electronic · 1 from abroad | 0 | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- Edinburgh Sheriff CourtReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- DropboxAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.