AI FACTORY RFI STARTER TEMPLATE

HOW TO USE
Complete the bracketed fields with your project team. Use "unknown" where a decision is open. Ask suppliers for the source, date, assumptions and owner behind each answer. This is an editable starting point, not a completed specification.

PROJECT RECORD
Project: [name]
Buyer and decision owner: [organisation / role]
Response contact and deadline: [contact / date]
Target service launch: [date / dependency]
Initial scale and growth horizon: [GPU count / dates]

1. WORKLOADS AND SERVICE LEVELS
Which training, inference or mixed workloads must run?
Models, precision and context sizes: [known / unknown]
Concurrent users or jobs: [normal / peak]
Service objectives: [throughput / latency / availability]
Data residency and tenancy needs: [requirements]
Evidence: [measurement or source / owner / date]

2. COMPUTE AND EXPANSION
Preferred or required GPU platform: [platform / reason]
Initial installed capacity: [nodes / GPUs per node]
Expansion capacity: [target / trigger / timeframe]
Distinguish installed equipment from unused fabric capacity.
What assumptions would change the node count?

3. NETWORK AND STORAGE
Describe compute, storage, management and external networks separately.
Required capacity: [usable capacity / protection method]
Workload throughput: [read / write / units / concurrency]
Metadata and checkpoint behaviour: [profile / evidence]
What workload-specific tests support the proposal?
Record unverified sizing assumptions rather than labelling them proven.

4. PLATFORM AND SECURITY
Scheduling, images and cluster management: [requirements]
Tenant isolation and identity: [boundaries / authentication]
Keys, audit logs and monitoring: [ownership / retention]
Backup and recovery: [objectives / test method]
Who operates each layer and who responds to incidents?

5. FACILITY INTERFACES
Available rack space, power, cooling and cabling: [inputs / owner]
Separate IT equipment demand from facility engineering approval.
Which facility inputs remain provisional?

6. DELIVERY AND ACCEPTANCE
Buyer-supplied dependencies: [item / owner / required date]
Supplier scope and exclusions: [list]
Acceptance evidence: [test / expected result / witness]
Support boundary: [hours / escalation / responsibility]
Long-lead items and alternatives: [item / evidence / date]

RESPONSE REGISTER — COPY ONE ROW PER ANSWER
Question ID | Answer | Source and date | Assumptions | Evidence owner | Open decision | Decision date
[ID] | [answer] | [source] | [assumptions] | [owner] | [decision] | [date]

NEXT STEP
Agree the unresolved decisions and acceptance model before turning this discovery record into an RFP.