A security administrator of a large private firm is researching and putting together a proposal to purchase an IPS. The specific IPS type has not been selected, and the security administrator needs…

An RFC (Request for Comments) is an IETF publication used to define internet standards and protocols, not a vendor procurement document.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is a business continuity metric that defines the maximum acceptable downtime after a disaster, unrelated to vendor selection.

An RFQ (Request for Quotation) is used after a product is already specified and the buyer only needs pricing details, which is not the case here since the product type has not yet been determined.

An RFI is issued early in the procurement lifecycle when the buyer needs to survey the market and learn about available solutions from multiple vendors without yet committing to a specific product. Because the administrator has not yet determined the IPS type or brand, an RFI is the appropriate tool to collect vendor information that will inform the final selection decision.