Table of contents preview
- 01.
Project Background and Objectives
The buyer's rationale for adopting the infrastructure (workload types, scale, timeline) — focused on objective facts.
- Primary workloads
- Expected user scale
- Operations start date
- Operations term (3/5/7 years)
- 02.
Scope of Work
Definition of the consulting + deployment + operations + training phases. Specify the deliverables for each phase.
- Compute / storage / network specifications
- Management server, OS, and scheduler scope
- Benchmark verification targets
- Operations support (SLA and response times)
- 03.
Technical Requirements — Compute
CPU / GPU specifications, node count, memory, local storage. Measurable criteria (HPL, STREAM, NCCL).
- CPU model / core count / node count
- GPU model / NVLink topology
- Memory per node / memory bandwidth
- 04.
Technical Requirements — Network
InfiniBand XDR/NDR vs. RoCEv2 decision. Fat-tree blocking ratio, adaptive routing.
- Fabric type / speed
- Topology (fat-tree / dragonfly / other)
- Blocking ratio (1:1 / 2:1 / etc.)
- Whether the management network is separated
- 05.
Technical Requirements — Storage
Parallel file system, metadata distribution, IOPS, backup and DR.
- File system (Spectrum Scale / Lustre)
- Capacity and throughput (GB/s sequential, metadata ops/s)
- Tiers (Hot/Warm/Cold)
- Backup and disaster recovery RPO/RTO
- 06.
Software / Operations Tools
Scheduler (Slurm/K8s), monitoring, chargeback, OS and image automation.
- Slurm / Kubernetes / hybrid
- Monitoring and log integration
- User analytics / billing
- OS deployment and provisioning (redundancy)
- 07.
Acceptance Criteria
Agree on benchmark items, conditions, and pass criteria in advance. The proposer submits the measurement tools and scripts.
- HPL efficiency ≥ 95% theoretical
- STREAM Triad ≥ 380 GB/s/node
- NCCL all-reduce ≥ 94% peak
- Spectrum Scale throughput ≥ X GB/s
- 08.
Proposal Evaluation Criteria and Weights
A standard model of 60% technical / 30% price / 10% company credibility (adjustable).
- Technical evaluation detail (around 40 items)
- Pricing methodology (5-year TCO)
- Reference evaluation (similar-scale cases)
- Review panel composition (including external experts)
- 09.
Contract Terms and Schedule
Contract type, payment terms, defect warranty, SLA, and penalties.
- 10.
Submission Requirements (Proposer)
Standard format for attachments beyond the main body (document template, PDF page count, quotation form).
- 0A.
Appendix: The 5 Pitfalls of RFPs in the HPC/AI Market
1) Over-weighting price → risk of a substandard build. 2) Verification criteria defined too late → disputes. 3) Specifications locked to a single vendor. 4) Omitted operations staffing costs. 5) Vague post-deployment support SLA.
- 0B.
Appendix: Measurement Scripts and Tools
Standard run options for HPL / STREAM / NCCL / IOR / mdtest, plus a results template.