Installation of a multi-factor authentication infrastructure

The IPU is the world organization of parliaments. The world’s first multilateral political organization founded in 1889, it promotes cooperation and dialogue among nations. Currently, the IPU brings together 178 national Member Parliaments and 14 regional parliamentary institutions. As a strong advocate of democracy, the IPU assists parliaments to strengthen themselves, to reach out to youth and women and to cultivate diversity. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through its specialized committee composed of parliamentarians from around the world.

Current situation

The IPU’s IT installation consists of two separate server farms:

• Internal management: Active Directory, Accounting, Databases, etc.
• External access: Remote Desktop Access & SharePoint

Two NAS clustered servers of 24 Tb provide working files storage. Currently, the working files use up about 400 Gb, plus 6 Tb of multimedia files.

At present, the IPU has about 70 users.

Needs

The IPU plans to secure its external connections to the currently in place Remote Desktop Access and, in the near future, Sharepoint servers with a dual authentication mechanism. This solution will apply to both internal and external users.

The implementation of this new function will increase the level of security of external connections to the IPU’s infrastructure and thus provide a better control of actions performed through these connections.

The IPU is therefore in search of a partner that can bring its proven experience to enable the IPU to optimize its infrastructure while minimizing the impact on the working habits of its users. The partner would offer the IPU advice and assistance in the configuration and use of such an infrastructure.

The partner will be responsible for assessing the needs, establishing the size of the solution that will meet current and future needs, providing and installing the new function and transferring of knowledge to the IPU’s IT services.

Conditions

• The solution must be hosted locally, not through any Cloud service.
• The solution should be based on physical appliance wherever possible. A virtual solution is feasible.
• In the case of a virtual environment, the machines must be sized to ensure that it meets the required needs.
• The offer should be based on a total of 100 users and 10 resources with a maximum of 70 simultaneous sessions.
• Backup will be provided by the Veeam software which is already installed on the IPU’s backup server. The solution to be offered must, therefore, be compatible with this backup/recovery mechanism.

Qualifications

The partner will have the following qualifications:

• Experience in working with international organizations
• Experience in multifactor authentication
• Experience in the proposed solution

Timeline

The IPU wishes to set up this infrastructure as soon as possible. The project will therefore commence as soon as the partner is selected.

The tender is sent to different providers on 2 August 2022.

Questions can be addressed to the IPU until 25 August 2022.

The complete application must be submitted at the latest by 23:59 (CET, Central European Time – Geneva time) of 5 September 2022.

The decision will be taken by 15 September 2022 at the latest.

Selection criteria

The IPU will evaluate each proposal and, where appropriate, will contact the companies/consultants who submitted the best proposals to either ask them further questions or meet with them.

In its selection of a service provider, the IPU will rely on the following criteria:

• Responses provided to the attached Excel questionnaire (available only in French)
• Company experience
• Technical competence and flexibility in the execution of the proposed timeline
• Quality of previous activities
• Understanding of the project
• Costs
• Quality/price ratio.