Deadline Date:
Thursday 19 June 2025
Requirement:
Support to SolarWinds Monitoring Engineering
Location:
Mons, BELGIUM
Time On-Site:
100%
Not to Exceed:
2025 BASE: 3,420 EUR/sprint (20 sprints, total NTE 68,400 EUR), 2026, 2027, 2028 OPTIONS
Period of Performance:
2025 Base period: 22 July 2025
Required Security Clearance:
NATO SECRET
Background:
The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) is dedicated to acquiring, deploying, and defending communication systems for NATO’s political decision-makers and Commands. It operates on the frontlines against cyber-attacks, collaborating closely with governments and industry to prevent future debilitating attacks. The NCIA plays a crucial role in maintaining NATO’s technological edge and ensuring the collective defence and crisis management capabilities of the Alliance. In pursuit of our mission, we require specialized advisory services to enhance our interim workforce capacity.
Introduction:
NATO Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is looking for a contractor to support the work of Enable Branch: to ensure the availability, performance, and security of NATO’s data and communication networks across multiple sites. Focus will be on delivering key networking solutions and providing technical expertise in compliance with NATO’s operational requirements and security standards.
Objectives:
The aim of this SOW is to support NCSC with technical expertise specifically related to the operation and maintenance of NATO’s SOLARWINDS MONITORING ENGINEERING with a deliverable based (completion-type) contract to be executed in 2025.
The main objective is to secure advisory services that provide expert guidance and support to achieve:
- Enhanced Monitoring Performance: Reduced downtime and faster issue detection through real-time alerts and automated responses, improving overall system visibility and performance.
- Improved Network Security Monitoring: Enhanced visibility into potential security threats, significantly reducing vulnerability to cyberattacks and data breaches through continuous monitoring of network activity.
- Increased Scalability of Monitoring Systems: SolarWinds will enable seamless integration of new technologies and expansion of monitoring capabilities as the network grows, supporting future operational expansion.
- Greater Operational Efficiency and User Satisfaction: Proactive monitoring and automation through SolarWinds will lead to faster issue resolution, consistent system performance, and greater overall network reliability, resulting in higher satisfaction for both IT staff and end-users.
Under the direction/guidance of NCIA or delegated staff, the Contractor’s Personnel will designing, deploying, managing, and optimizing the systems and platforms that support NATO’s Networks. This work will include the following activities:
- SolarWinds Monitoring Assessment Report – A detailed review or the current monitoring setup, identifying gaps, configuration issues, and recommendations for optimisation across NATO networks.
- SolarWinds Monitoring Architecture Design – A proposed technical architecture for an optimised SolarWinds environment, ensure scalability, redundancy, and alignment with NATO’s security and operational requirements
- Monitoring Implementation Plan – A phased plan detailing how the proposed architecture and improvements will be rolled out, including timelines, resource allocations, and integration steps with existing systems
- SolarWinds Security Enhancements – implementation of hardening measures, access controls, role-based permissions, and audit capabilities to ensure Solarwinds aligns with NATO security baselines and controls.
- Monitoring Performance Optimization – Tuning of polling intervals, alert thresholds, and database maintenance to enhance the responsiveness, reliability, and accuracy of the monitoring solution.
- Disaster Recovery and Monitoring Redundancy Plan- Design and document of procedures for failover, data recovery, and system continuity in case of primary system failure or site outages
- Training and Handover - Knowledge transfer sessions and documentation provided to NATO personnel to ensure and sustainable in house support and administration of the upgraded monitoring environment.
The Client will:
- Provide necessary access to systems and information required for all services
- Tools and equipment (laptop) will be provided for remote service provisioning. Access to the Agency’s tools that are used to execute daily tasks will be provided.
- Designate primary points of contact for escalations and decision-making
- Early Definition: Establish criteria at the beginning of the project or sprint; Refine criteria as needed throughout the development process
- Prioritization: Identify must-have criteria vs. nice-to-have features; Align prioritization with project / service goals and constraints
- Consider Edge Cases: Include criteria for handling unexpected inputs or scenarios; Address potential failure modes and error handling
- The Contractor shall deliver services onsite in Mons, Belgium.
- The Contractor shall report to the NCIA Project Manager or designated Point of Contact (POC) assigned by the NCIA Cyber Security Service Line.
- The Contractor shall participate in monthly status update meetings and other meetings, physically in the office, or in person via electronic means using Conference Call capabilities, according to service delivery manager’s instructions.
- For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor must report the outcome of his/her work during the sprint, first verbally during the retrospective meeting and then in writing, within five (5) working days after the sprint’s end date. A report in the format of a short email shall be sent to NCIA POC briefly mentioning the work held and the achievements during the sprint.
- All the deliverables provided under this statement of work will be based on NCIA templates or agreed with the project point of contact.
- All documentation etc. will be stored under configuration management and/or in the provided NCIA tools.
- It is mandatory for the Contractor to hold NATO SECRET (NS) security clearance.
- NATO COSMIC TOP SECRET (CTS) may be required for specific follow-on activities and will be coordinated on a case-by-case basis.
- The signature of a Non-Disclosure Agreement between the contractor contributing to this task order and NCIA will be required prior to execution.
The contractor will be required to work 100% onsite in Mons / BEL as part of this engagement. The NCSC Team is located in Mons / BEL, with working hours will from 08:30 to 17:30 with 1 hour for lunch from Monday to Thursday. On Friday working hours will be from 08:30 to 15:30 with 1 hour for lunch.
The contractor will be required to work following the rules and regulations applicable for the operations of NATO CIS.
The Purchaser will provide the Contractor with the following Purchaser-Furnished Equipment (PFE):
- Access to NATO sites, as required, for the purpose of executing this SOW.
- Workspace (needed business IT for both on- and off-site work, hot-desk at NCSC facility).
- NCIA “REACH” laptop to be used by the contractor for the execution of the contract.
- Regular travel costs to and from the service delivery location (SHAPE) are out of scope and will be borne by the contractor.
- Travel costs to other NATO locations are not included in the quoted price as there is no expected travel foreseen.
- However, should travel be required, travel arrangements will be the responsibility of the contractor and the expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with Article 5.5 of the AAS+ Framework Contract and within the limits of the NCIA Travel Directive.
Qualifications:
Services under current SOW are to be delivered by ONE resource that must have demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience as listed below:
- Security Classification: It is mandatory for the Contractor to hold NATO SECRET (NS) security clearance.
- Language Proficiency: English
- Past Performance and Qualifications: To provide a high level of service quality, the contractor supporting the network engineering team has a proven track record of successfully designing, implementing, and optimizing network and security infrastructures for a variety of organizations across multiple industries.
- Minimum 4 years of experience working with SolarWinds, including modules such as Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Server and Application Monitor (SAM), and Network Configuration Manager (NCM).
- Experience with Cisco switches, routers, and firewalls, including integration with SolarWinds for monitoring and alerting.
- Minimum 2 years of experience in a military or NATO environment with different levels of network and information classification.
- Experience in deploying and managing network performance monitoring tools in large, complex environments, including the configuration of alerting, dashboards, and reports.
- A valid certification in network monitoring or related fields (e.g., SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP).
- At least one certification in network or security technologies, such as Cisco CCNA, CCNP, Juniper JNCIA, or Palo Alto PCNSE, with a focus on integrating these with monitoring solutions.
- Knowledge of ITIL 4 for managing service-level agreements (SLAs) and incident response processes in the context of network monitoring.
- Experience with virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V) and their monitoring within SolarWinds.
- Working knowledge of Linux and Windows servers in monitored environments.
- Familiarity with log management tools and how to integrate them with SolarWinds for enhanced monitoring.
- Experience with cloud-based monitoring solutions and hybrid infrastructures using SolarWinds.