CALL FOR TENDERS - 23 September 2019 to 4 November 2019
The study should explore relevant use cases that a pan European QCI system could cover, from a public sector perspective in the following domains:
Inter and intra EU government communications – Government communications and data require the highest level of security. Both the security of voice and data communications exchanges between governmental services in a Member States, between Member States and EU institutions, as well as the long-term secure storage and protection of sensitive government data against intercept-now-decrypt-later attacks must be considered.
Data centres – Within QCI, a secured Data Centres (DC) Interconnection is composed of pairs of DCs that exchange data using quantum secured communications. More data centres can be interconnected, realising a so-called secured data lake. Deploying a secured DC interconnection at intra-metropolitan scale creates a secured ecosystem where independent operators can share their contents stored in different data centres, preserving the highest security level. Secured interconnection of DCs at longer distances (inter-metropolitan scale) ensures secured disaster recovery. Each DC would implement their storage using quantum keys.
Critical infrastructure – Cyber-attacks on European critical infrastructure are recognized as a European-level threat in the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive which identifies several essential services which are very critical for society and are potentially vulnerable to digital attack: energy, digital services, air transport, banks, water supply and healthcare. Priority sectors in the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Directive are energy and transport, including rail transport, that could also be considered for QCI. For all the infrastructure-related use cases, the QCI should guarantee the authentication of the entity requiring access, and the confidentiality and integrity of the data being exchanged and stored.
The study should consider to which extent the above use cases and specific user requirements could also be relevant for covering use cases of a more commercial nature.
The contracting authority intends to award two contracts, provided that at least two tenders are compliant with the tender specifications and have reached the minimum thresholds set out for award criteria. Each of the two selected tender will be awarded a maximum of EUR 1 000 000 each.
The closing date of the call is 4 November 2019 at 15:00.
Study reference: SMART 2019/0086
For more information go to : https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/assessing-user-needs-quantum-communication-infrastructure and https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft-display.html?cftId=5305
The study should explore relevant use cases that a pan European QCI system could cover, from a public sector perspective in the following domains:
Inter and intra EU government communications – Government communications and data require the highest level of security. Both the security of voice and data communications exchanges between governmental services in a Member States, between Member States and EU institutions, as well as the long-term secure storage and protection of sensitive government data against intercept-now-decrypt-later attacks must be considered.
Data centres – Within QCI, a secured Data Centres (DC) Interconnection is composed of pairs of DCs that exchange data using quantum secured communications. More data centres can be interconnected, realising a so-called secured data lake. Deploying a secured DC interconnection at intra-metropolitan scale creates a secured ecosystem where independent operators can share their contents stored in different data centres, preserving the highest security level. Secured interconnection of DCs at longer distances (inter-metropolitan scale) ensures secured disaster recovery. Each DC would implement their storage using quantum keys.
Critical infrastructure – Cyber-attacks on European critical infrastructure are recognized as a European-level threat in the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive which identifies several essential services which are very critical for society and are potentially vulnerable to digital attack: energy, digital services, air transport, banks, water supply and healthcare. Priority sectors in the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Directive are energy and transport, including rail transport, that could also be considered for QCI. For all the infrastructure-related use cases, the QCI should guarantee the authentication of the entity requiring access, and the confidentiality and integrity of the data being exchanged and stored.
The study should consider to which extent the above use cases and specific user requirements could also be relevant for covering use cases of a more commercial nature.
The contracting authority intends to award two contracts, provided that at least two tenders are compliant with the tender specifications and have reached the minimum thresholds set out for award criteria. Each of the two selected tender will be awarded a maximum of EUR 1 000 000 each.
The closing date of the call is 4 November 2019 at 15:00.
Study reference: SMART 2019/0086
For more information go to : https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/assessing-user-needs-quantum-communication-infrastructure and https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft-display.html?cftId=5305