The objective of the Consultancy service is to assess the supply and demand  of the data infrastructure and cloud services market in the three South Caucasus countries at present and with a 10-year projection in the future, and identify pathways to attract private sector investment in such infrastructure, to expand digital markets in all three countries and serv the public sector’s expected data storage needs and digitalization plans.

All three South Caucasus countries also view the opportunity for the region to be positioned as an important node on inter-regional digital connectivity networks between Europe and Central Asia, and Europe and the Middle East. With increased international connectivity and access to hubs in Europe and Asia, the market for data hosting and cloud services also expands. This also opens an opportunity for serving as a data infrastructure hub in the region to serve data hosting and cloud requirements of neighboring countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, while also providing backup and redundancy within the South Caucasus region and for markets in Europe.

This assignment includes assessing the demand for data hosting and cloud services at a national level, regional level (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), and for the region to serve neighboring markets. The demand and supply side enablers (e.g. policy and regulatory framework, strategy, skills) and barriers in the three countries of the South Caucasus will also be assessed and recommendations for attracting private investment into data hosting infrastructure, including examples of successful PPP arrangements and government policy provided. The results of the assessment should answer the larger question of how to make the region and countries favorable for private investment and concrete actions that need to be carried out by different stakeholders to attract and enable the productive presence of private sector cloud providers in the South Caucasus region.

A key aspect of this approach that the study should articulate is to leverage public sector demand in the region as the anchor tenant to attract private capital and build a business case for the private players in the data and cloud market. The consultancy should provide a roadmap for the public sector to transition from their existing data storage models (on-premises, fragmented legacy solutions, owned and operated by the governments) towards hybrid models that leverage Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and moving to Platform as a Service (PaaS), and potentially Software as a Service models (SaaS).

The study will include a high-level legal and regulatory diagnostic to provide recommendations to enable the development of a cloud industry, covering aspects such as data protection, non-personal data related regulations, cybersecurity, data classification and cross-border data flows.

SELECTION OF CONSULTING FIRMS BY THE WORLD BANK GROUP

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI)

Electronic Submissions through WBGeProcure RFx Now

ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

Assignment Title: Data hosting and cloud market assessment in South Caucasus

Assignment Countries:

- Not Country Related

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION

The objective of the Consultancy service is to assess the supply and demand of the data infrastructure and cloud services market in the three South Caucasus countries at present and with a 10-year projection in the future, and identify pathways to attract private sector investment in such infrastructure, to expand digital markets in all three countries and serv the public sector’s expected data storage needs and digitalization plans.

All three South Caucasus countries also view the opportunity for the region to be positioned as an important node on inter-regional digital connectivity networks between Europe and Central Asia, and Europe and the Middle East. With increased international connectivity and access to hubs in Europe and Asia, the market for data hosting and cloud services also expands. This also opens an opportunity for serving as a data infrastructure hub in the region to serve data hosting and cloud requirements of neighboring countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, while also providing backup and redundancy within the South Caucasus region and for markets in Europe.

This assignment includes assessing the demand for data hosting and cloud services at a national level, regional level (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), and for the region to serve neighboring markets. The demand and supply side enablers (e.g. policy and regulatory framework, strategy, skills) and barriers in the three countries of the South Caucasus will also be assessed and recommendations for attracting private investment into data hosting infrastructure, including examples of successful PPP arrangements and government policy provided. The results of the assessment should answer the larger question of how to make the region and countries favorable for private investment and concrete actions that need to be carried out by different stakeholders to attract and enable the productive presence of private sector cloud providers in the South Caucasus region.

A key aspect of this approach that the study should articulate is to leverage public sector demand in the region as the anchor tenant to attract private capital and build a business case for the private players in the data and cloud market. The consultancy should provide a roadmap for the public sector to transition from their existing data storage models (on-premises, fragmented legacy solutions, owned and operated by the governments) towards hybrid models that leverage Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and moving to Platform as a Service (PaaS), and potentially Software as a Service models (SaaS).

The study will include a high-level legal and regulatory diagnostic to provide recommendations to enable the development of a cloud industry, covering aspects such as data protection, non-personal data related regulations, cybersecurity, data classification and cross-border data flows.

FUNDING SOURCE

The World Bank Group intends to finance the assignment / services described below under the following:

• BB: Bank Budget
• TF0C6484: DDP2.0

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility restrictions apply:

• [Please type list of restrictions]

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

The World Bank Group invites eligible firms to indicate their interest in providing the services. Interested firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services (brochures, description of similar assignments, experience in similar conditions, availability of appropriate skills among staff, etc. for firms; CV and cover letter for individuals). Please note that the total size of all attachments should be less than 5MB. Firms may associate to enhance their qualifications unless otherwise stated in the solicitation documents. Where a group of firms associate to submit an EOI, they must indicate which is the lead firm. If shortlisted, the firm identified in the EOI as the lead firm will be invited to the request for proposal (RFP) phase.

Expressions of Interest should be submitted, in English, electronically through WBGeProcure RFx Now

NOTES

Following this invitation for EOI, a shortlist of qualified firms will be formally invited to submit proposals. Shortlisting and selection will be subject to the availability of funding.

Only those firms which have been shortlisted will be invited to participate in the RFP phase. No notification or debrief will be provided to firms which have not been shortlisted.

If you encounter technical difficulties while uploading documents, please send an e-mail to the Help Desk at corporateprocurement@worldbank.org prior to the submission deadline.