Italy - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support - Acquisition of an Advanced Hierarchical Data Storage Management System

The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) invites Tenders for the future acquisition of an Advanced Hierarchical Data Storage Management System. The ITT seeks proposals from Tenderers for licensing and support services for an advanced hierarchical data storage management system and related consultancy services. The aim is to enter into a long-term contract for the procurement of these services, include commissioning, training of ECMWF staff and supporting the solution over the lifetime of the contract. Full information is available on ECMWF’s eProcurement Portal which will is accessible via https://procurement.ecmwf.int/. Further details of the scope and overview of the procurement are provided below: ECMWF’s data archive is based on HPSS (High Performance Storage System) software and underpinned by large capacity disk and automated tape library infrastructure. Overall HPSS holds 1.5 Exabytes of data and the expectation is that by the end of 2032 they will have grown to hold well over 4 Exabytes and by the end of 2035, well over 8 Exabytes. HPSS is primarily used by two applications, both developed at ECMWF; MARS and ECFS: MARS, the Meteorological Archival and Retrieval System, provides access to a powerful abstraction engine that allows the thousands of registered users to access the meteorological data that has been collected or generated at ECMWF for more than 40 years. ECFS, the ECMWF Common File System, provides users with a logical view of a seemingly very large file system and is used for data in formats that are not suitable for storing in MARS. The archives are very busy, most of their activity is responding to read workloads from the HPC systems. However, around 620TB of new data is being added every day, and it is expected that daily growth will be close to 1.5PB following the introduction of the new HPC in 2027. Further details on activity and existing equipment will be provided in the ITT. The intention is to determine whether to remain with HPSS or to migrate to a new storage solution, whichever provides the most compelling case based on long-term growth potential, stability and pricing. ECMWF is seeking to enter a long-term relationship with a vendor to supply a license and provide 24/7 support for the software. The initial installation will be at the Centre's Bologna data centre in Italy. If there are optimisation benefits, it will be possible to supply hardware in this tender, however the main intention is for this to be predominantly a software solution, with commodity hardware being purchased elsewhere. The ITT has an estimated value exceeding 3 million EUR. Further details are available in the ITT volumes accessible via the ECMWF procurement portal. The closing date for the Tender, as indicated in Volume IA is Thursday, 05 March 2026, 15:00 (UK Local time).