Investing in Australia's research cloud
The ARDC’s Nectar Research Cloud provides flexible and scalable computing power to all Australian researchers, with computing infrastructure, software and services that allow the research community to store, access and analyse data, remotely, rapidly and autonomously. Its self-service infrastructure allows fast, efficient desktop access to data and compute resources and a powerful platform for collaboration.
A significant proportion of the our research cloud has reached the end of its useful life and is due for replacement and in 2018 the Australian Government provided funding to support the continued delivery of compute resources to the research sector. The ARDC is refreshing cloud compute and storage infrastructure to maintain the capacity required to meet the demand for cloud resources from nationally prioritised research activities. We are requesting proposals from organisations currently providing resources into ARDC's Nectar Research Cloud, as well as other organisations with established capability in hosting significant ICT infrastructure, for the supply and operation of new research cloud infrastructure as part of the ARDC’s Storage and Compute program.
Outcomes of RFP announced
The RFP phase has closed.
Our investment of $4.1 million is split across four Australian organisations - The University of Melbourne, Monash University, The Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing, and a joint partnership between Intersect Australia and QCIF (the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation). Read our announcement for more information.
Key dates
30 Jul 2019 | Draft RFP v1 released Draft RFP v1 Documents [PDF 1.9MB] FAQs document Registration of interest on website |
12 Aug 2019 | Consultation 1 via Webinar |
19 Aug 2019 | All questions for Draft RFP version 1 to be received by this date. |
26 Aug 2019 | Draft RFP v2 released Draft RFP v2 Documents [PDF 570k] |
12 Sep 2019 | Consultation 2 via Webinar. Recording now available. |
14 Oct 2019 | All questions for draft RFP version 2 to be received by this date. |
24 Oct 2019 | RFP released on ARDC website. Submission portal open. |
8 Nov 2019 | RFP closes |
11-22 Nov 2019 | Panel review |
25 Nov 2019 | Results announced |
Ask a question
Key resources
- Combined RFP (Parts A, B, D and Attachment 1) [PDF 687kb]
- Changes from RFP v32 to Final [PDF 158k]
- RFP Part D Proposal [DOCX 905k] - This is your submission form. Upload completed proposal using the submission box above.