Secure HPC Enclave for Regulated Research Data

Empire AI invites proposals for the design, supply, installation, and integration of an isolated high-performance computing enclave for regulated and sensitive research data, including protected health information (PHI) subject to HIPAA Compliance. The enclave will host multiple member institutions as independent tenants on shared physical infrastructure. Several architectural decisions, notably storage sourcing and the network perimeter, are deliberately left open, and bidders are expected to assess the options described in this document and recommend an approach. Two objectives govern the design and carry equal weight. First, the enclave must satisfy the HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules and establish a defensible NIST 800-234 baseline, with isolation enforced by technical controls rather than by solely administrative policy. Second, it must remain a high-performance computing environment: security controls that materially degrade tightly coupled GPU training, RDMA data movement, or high-IOPS storage access are not acceptable, and bidders are expected to say so where a conventional control would do that. Target readiness for first regulated workload is January 4, 2027. Business enterprises awarded an identical or substantially similar procurement contract within the past five years: None Minority / Women Business Enterprise contracting goals (MWBE) MBE Goal: 6.00% WBE Goal: 6.00%