HomeMy WebLinkAboutAnswers to Questions from VendorsEmail Archival System RFP Questions/Answers
1. Whether companies from outside USA can apply for this? (like, from India or Canada)
Yes
2. Whether we need to come over there for meetings?
It would be ideal to meet in person on occasion, but meeting in person is not strictly required.
3. Can we perform the task (related to RFP) outside USA? (like, from India or Canada)
Yes, it is OK for tasks needed to get the project completed to be performed outside of the US,
but the end product system we envision would need to be on our premises here at the City of
Renton (see requirement #1 on Form 4 of the RFP) with an option to be in a US‐based cloud.
4. Can we submit the proposal via email?
Yes.
5. Requirement #11 ‐ What is meant by multiple security layers?
We want enough granularity in security that we can manage access such as searching email and
configuring the system separately. For example: a user can have access to search and view their
own email, but no other email and cannot change system level settings; an IT user can manage
settings of the system, but not be able to search anything beyond their own email; a records
search user can search all email in the system, but not have access to change the system level
settings.
6. Requirement #12 – What is meant by rich reporting? What is the City looking to report on?
We want to be able to report on any aspect of the data. Basically as robust reporting capability
as possible. For example, the capability to report on: number of messages sent/received by user
and in aggregate; storage statistics; all litigation holds in effect; number of emails set to reach
their retention limit; number of users and the accounts in each defined retention policy, etc.
7. Requirement #7 (searching metadata) –What metadata fields is the City of Renton looking to
identify/search for?
Ideally, all of them. For example: Return‐Path, all Received headers, etc.
8. Requirement #15 ‐ Should a new full‐text search be performed in the search result?
Yes, that would satisfy the requirement. The sub‐search would be a full‐text search, performed
only on the results of the initial search.
9. What is the existing 4.5TB email archive?
Our existing archive is in an archive product, “Unlimited Mailbox” (UMB), which uses MySQL for
storage.
10. What is the age of the existing archive?
Our existing email archival solution is approximately nine years old.
11. Are there any retention policies being run against the existing archive?
No. The only current policy is save everything.
12. Does the existing email archive contain all of the emails that are in current Exchange Store?
Yes (and more). We originally had GroupWise, and then migrated those emails to Exchange
2007 in December of 2008. We purchased “Unlimited Mailbox” (UMB) in mid‐2009, and then
created PST’s from the existing emails which were ingested into UMB. Since then, we journal all
inbound/outbound emails to UMB.
13. One of the requirements is to be able to import the legacy email store. Outside of the items
that live in Exchange, what format are these emails in and/or can they be exported as .eml or to
PST?
The existing archive stores email in a MySQL database. Emails can be exported from the existing
archive to a .pst or .eml, for example be selecting a user and/or date range. Given there are
terabytes (millions) of emails, we’re not sure if exporting in this would be viable for migrating
the entire archive.
14. Would you be open to out of the box functionality from Exchange Server?
Yes, if all of our requirements are met.
15. Is there a migration to Exchange 2016 planned as well?
There is not a migration planned at this time.
16. If the features cannot be executed in 2010 would you be open to transition to 2016 or Exchange
Online (O365 Government Solution) now?
We would have to budget for and plan a migration.