"The SAN must be able to provide scheduled and manually initiated nondisruptive copies of AGAD's file shares, Microsoft Exchange server, Microsoft SQL server and Oracle database," tender documents said.

"The catalogue must be user configurable and be capable of tracking all tape movements both on and off-site at AGAD's Kingston headquarters and within the SAN solution itself.

"Whilst tenderers are free to submit various proposals for alternate solutions, it is expected that the SAN's internal architecture will comprise three tiers; primary, secondary and archival storage, that is D2D2T.

"It is envisaged that primary storage will consist of high-performance fibre channel disks, secondary storage will consist of larger capacity, slower disks (example: SATA), whilst a tape library at the third tier will provide both the capability to store information online on tape - with eventual archive for storage off-site long-term and permit regular backups for disaster recovery purposes."

The successful tenderer is also responsible for implementing a disaster recovery plan and an expected upgrade path.