Final Challenge-Based Solicitation (CBS) – IaaS and Native PaaS

*** This notice has been amended to reflect the current stage of the CBS ***

Shared Services Canada (SSC) has issued the final version of the Challenge-Based Solicitation (CBS) to the four bidders that successfully prequalified for the current requirement following the CBS for prequalification that closed on December 10, 2024. Only the following prequalified bidders, listed in alphabetical order, are invited to submit a bid:
• Amazon Web Services Canada, Inc.
• Google Cloud Canada Corporation
• Microsoft Corporation
• Oracle Canada ULC
This notice is published on CanadaBuys to ensure transparency and compliance with trade agreement obligations, including Article 506(1) of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).
The final CBS represents Stage 8 of the multi-stage procurement process for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Native Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud services.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

Canada has a requirement for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Native Platform as a Service (PaaS) Commercially Available Public Cloud Services to meet its business needs across a broad spectrum of government organizations.

In order to assist organizations in meeting Canadians’ expectations and delivering government services and benefits simply, securely and efficiently, Canada is seeking the access and delivery of Commercially Available Public Cloud Services at various data classification levels.

Canada must create a secure and resilient enterprise digital security ecosystem to continue to deliver the services that Canadians rely on today while accelerating Canada’s move to modern services that are secure, reliable, user-centric and barrier-free, and meet the need for both privacy and transparency. This is essential to maintaining trust in Canada’s institutions.

PROCUREMENT PROCESS

Shared Services Canada (SSC) will leverage Agile Procurement Process 3.0 (APP3.0) that is an innovative procurement framework to improve the ability of SSC to move quicker and produce better results.

Evolving solicitation document

The solicitation document will evolve during the solicitation period. Below shows the various forms it will take:
1. Challenge-Based Solicitation (CBS) – Initial (posted 02/10/2024)
2. CBS for Prequalification (posted 04/19/2024)
3. Final Draft CBS (posted 08/18/2025)
4. Final CBS (posted 11/26/2025)

This procurement process involves the following stages:
• Stage 1: CBS – Initial (completed)
• Stage 2: Information Webinar (completed – held on February 16, 2024)
• Stage 3: Invitation to Refine (ItR) – Wave 1 – Consultation on prequalification criteria (completed)
• Stage 4: Posting of CBS Prequalification (completed) - Information Webinar (completed – held on April 24, 2024)
• Stage 5: Invitation to Refine – Waves 2 and subsequent waves – Consultation of prequalified bidders on various components of solicitation (completed)
• Stage 6: Release of DRAFT Final CBS – (completed)
• Stage 7: Invitation to Refine – Last chance for prequalified bidders to provide feedback (completed)
• Stage 8: Release of Final CBS – prequalified bidders may submit bids (current stage)
• Stage 9: Technical and Financial Evalution
• Stage 10: Pre-award
• Stage 11: Incremental Contract Award
• Stage 12: Task Authorization

PREQUALIFICATION STAGE (CURRENT REQUIREMENT)

Bidders who meet all mandatory criteria and achieves the minimum total score will qualify for the current requirement and move on to the next stage of the Solicitation process (i.e. prequalified Bidders).

Unsuccessful Bidders will not be given another opportunity to participate or be re-evaluated for the subsequent phases of the procurement process for the current requirement.

PERMANENT MULTI-USE LIST (FUTURE REQUIREMENT)

The Prequalification stage of this Challenge-Based Solicitation process will result in the establishment of a permanent multi-use list of prequalified suppliers that may be used to procure IaaS-Native PaaS services. To be qualify for inclusion on the multi-use list, bidders must meet all mandatory criteria in Part A of the Prequalification Evaluation Grid and must receive a minimum total score of [36/72] on the rated criteria in Part B of the Prequalification Evaluation Grid, as set out in the solicitation.

For clarity, this multi-use list may be used for procurement covered by the trade agreements listed in this NPP and the multi-use list will remain valid until terminated by Canada. Notice of such termination will be provided by Canada publishing a notice on CanadaBuys. The multi-use list will remain open for suppliers to attempt to qualify at any time.

Only Prequalified Bidders on the multi-use list will be permitted to bid on any subsequent solicitation issued as part of the procurement process.

Resulting contracts are intended to enable long term stability, and could potentially be used for 20 years or more.

FUTURE COMMUNICATION

After the prequalification stage, only prequalified Bidders will be invited to the Invitation to Refine (ITR) and will receive the final CBS. However, Canada will update this tender notice to inform all suppliers about the issuance of the final CBS at Stage 8.

For any subsequent CBS resulting from this procurement process Canada will issue both a tender notice and a notice of contract awards on CanadaBuys.

SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

At the contracting stage, the Contractor will need to fully satisfy requirements up to and including Protected B / High Value Asset (HVA) as defined in Canadian Center for Cyber Security (CCCS) guidance , unless otherwise specified. The language and full list of requirements will be further refined during the Invitation to Refine (stage 5 and 7).

COMPREHENSIVE LAND CLAIM AGREEMENTS (CLCA)

The requirement is not subject to the Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements (CLCAs), as none of the locations proposed services will be provided are located within any of the Land Claim Settlement Areas.

LANGUAGE

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.

ENQUIRIES

Enquiries regarding this solicitation or the above-noted multi-use list are to be submitted to the email below:
PVRCloudServicesRCRs.DCCServicesinfonuagiquesARF@ssc-spc.gc.ca.

PREVIOUS AMENDMENTS

AMENDMENT - January 14, 2024: PREQUALIFIED BIDDERS
Following the CBS for prequalification that closed on December 10, 2024, the bidders prequalified for the current requirement are (in alphabetic order):
- Amazon Web Services Canada, Inc.
- Google Cloud Canada Corporation
- Microsoft Corporation
- Oracle Canada ULC

AMENDMENT 026
The purpose of this amendment is to provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.

AMENDMENT 025
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to December 10, 2024.

AMENDMENT 024
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to November 27, 2024.

AMENDMENT 023
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to November 22, 2024.

AMENDMENT 022
The purpose of this amendment is to provide clarifications in support of the prequalification CBS.

AMENDMENT 021
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to November 19, 2024.

AMENDMENT 020
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to November 15, 2024.

AMENDMENT 019
The purpose of this amendment is to: 
1- Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section A.  
2- Extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to November 8, 2024. 
3- Specify the Pre-Bid Deadline to October 23, 2024.

AMENDMENT 018
The purpose of this amendment is to provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.

AMENDMENT 017
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to October 21, 2024.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section A

AMENDMENT 016
The purpose of this amendment is to postpone the Prebid submission and extend the Prequalification CBS closing date to October 10, 2024.

AMENDMENT 015
The purpose of this amendment is to provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.

AMENDMENT 014
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B.
3 - Extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to September 19, 2024.

AMENDMENT 013
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to August 15, 2024.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as well as the Prequalification Bidding Form.
For your convenience, Canada is providing the latest version of the Prequalification CBS document, which incorporates all the modifications made up to this point. To facilitate easier reading, the recent amendments have been highlighted in green.

AMENDMENT 012
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the CBS Prequalification closing date to July 15, 2024.

AMENDMENT 011
The purpose of this amendment is to extend the Prequalification CBS closing date to June 12, 2024.

AMENDMENT 010
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify M2 of Attachment 1 - Prequalification Evaluation Grid and the Prequalification Bidding Form to remove the requirement for the audit reports for the ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27027 as detailed in section B.

AMENDMENT 009
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Provide the latest version Attachment 1 - Prequalification Evaluation Grid, which includes any changes that have been made as detailed in section B.

AMENDMENT 008
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B.
3 - Extend the closing date to June 5, 2024, 2:00 p.m. EDT

AMENDMENT 007
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1- Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B, as well as the Prequalification Bidding Form.
Bidders who have submitted a pre-bid by date and time will have the choice to keep their pre-bid as is for criterion M2 or to submit a revised one by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21.

AMENDMENT 006
The purpose of this amendment is to inform Bidders that Criterion M2 will be modified in the next few days.
Bidders who have submitted a pre-bid by date and time will have the choice to keep their pre-bid as is for criterion M2 or to submit a revised one with modifications to criterion M2 to the second Pre-bid closure date to be defined later.

AMENDMENT 005
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B, as well as the Prequalification Bidding Form.

AMENDMENT 004
The purpose of this amendment is to modify the Prequalification Bidding Form.

AMENDMENT 003
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B.

AMENDMENT 002
The purpose of this amendment is to:
1 - Provide answers to questions received at the webinar as detailed in section A.
2 - Modify the Prequalification CBS as detailed in section B.

AMENDMENT 001
- The Prequalification CBS closing date has been extended to May 28, 2024.
- The deadline to submit the Pre-bid is now May 15, 2024.