Award of two contracts for the renting of magnetic tape drives and tape libraries for LHC data storage and the purchase of the associated tape cartridges

This document concerns the award of two contracts for the renting and possible subsequent purchase of magnetic tape drives and tape libraries for LHC data storage. The Finance Committee is invited to agree to the procedure described in section 3 of this document for the evaluation and possible subsequent purchase of tape drives and tape libraries for the storage of data from the LHC experiments. Subject to approval of this procedure, the Finance Committee is further invited to approve the negotiation of a contract for the renting of tape drives and tape libraries for evaluation purposes from IBM, for an amount of 579 707 Swiss francs, and from StorageTek, for an amount of 472 297 Swiss francs, during the period January 2006 â?" March 2007, plus the purchase of the associated tape cartridges for amounts of 202 500 Swiss francs and 284 748 Swiss francs respectively. The Finance Committee will be informed of the results of the evaluation by the end of 2006 and, subject to the outcome, will be invited to approve the negotiation of contracts for the supply of tape drives, tape libraries and tape cartridges with IBM and/or STK for the period 2007-2011.