SR 05-24-2016 3B
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: May 24, 2016
Agenda Item: 3.B
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Jory Wolf, Chief Information Officer, Information Systems Department,
Systems and Networks
Subject: Agreement for Purchase, Installation and Configuration Services of Storage
Array System
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
Award RFP# 72 to Nth Generation, a California-based company, for the
1.
purchase of hardware and services related to the installation, configuration and
three years of maintenance of an electronic data Storage Area Network solution,
Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a contractual service
2.
agreement with Nth Generation in an amount not to exceed $500,000 (includes a
10% contingency) over a three-year period, with future year funding contingent
on Council budget approval.
Executive Summary
The City currently uses a centralized data storage solution, Dell/Compellent Storage
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Data Center is housed in City Hall and hosts approximately 350 servers that support
more than 350 software applications, used by the public and City departments, which
are necessary for City business operations. Software applications and data that are
mission critical are replicated from the Primary SAN to a secondary SAN system located
in Las Vegas, for DR and business continuity purposes.
growth needs, increased performance requirements for current and future applications,
to introduce next gener
recommends executing a contractual services agreement with Nth Generation for the
purchase of hardware and services related to the installation, configuration and three
year maintenance of the new SAN system at a total cost not to exceed $500,000,
including 10% contingency.
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Background
In 2003, the City implemented a centralized storage solution by deploying a Hewlett-
Packard EVA3000 SAN system at the City Hall Data Center for accommodating the
2010, the City replaced the Hewlett-Packard solution due to the high maintenance costs
associated with its aging hardware and its eventual end-of-life support by Hewlett-
Packard. The system was replaced with a Dell/Compellent SAN, a cost effective next
generation solution that included features such as automated tiering, the ability to
dynamically move information between different disk types for more efficient storage of
information; superior performance; thin provisioning, a method of optimizing the
efficiency with which the available disk storage space is utilized in storage area
networks; snapshot technology for rolling back any unwanted changes and prevent data
loss; and, ease of data replication between two sites for business continuity, which is an
was
evaluated against other leading storage solutions at the time and selected based on its
advanced technological features, price, and, ease of administration and implementation.
Since its deployment, various upgrades have been implemented on the Dell solution,
including added storage and replacement of fast solid-state drives to increase
performance. The City also implemented a second Dell/Compellent SAN system in a
Colocation Data Center facility in Las Vegas, as part of developing its Disaster
Recovery (DR) strategy for its mission critical application servers and business data.
Currently, the primary SAN located in the City Hall Data Center is at 88% storage
capacity. The hardware has a watermark of 90%, at which point additional drives will
need to be added to the system. At the DR location, the SAN is at 89% capacity,
prohibiting replication of new systems due to lack of storage space. In order to address
these storage needs, on February 26, 2016, the City released a Request for Proposals
(RFP) to replace the Dell/Compellent SAN with a new industry standard and next
generation storage system to achieve a significant improvement in hardware, storage,
performance and reliability.
Discussion
T-standard five year replacement
cycle for storage solutions. Hard drive failures are now on-going, resulting in a
gradually unreliable storage system, which will be encumbered with an extended
hardware support beyond the initial five years. The total SAN storage capacity is
reaching its limit in both the Primary and Disaster Recovery sites and cannot
accommodate for the large amounts of data expected to be produced by current and
future applications. The lack of storage space in the Disaster Recovery site will prohibit
replication of new systems such as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) servers.
Low storage availability will also restrict utilization of essential features of the SAN
system (snapshot technology) for data protection, and protection of information from
external threats such as Ransomware and Malware. It is imperative that the system be
replaced immediately to ensure the business continuity of City applications.
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City staff and the public use the SAN system for storing, editing and accessing data via
City software applications and web services. The data housed in the SAN system are
produced by the many City business software applications and supporting databases,
including the financial and payroll systems, public safety systems, Computer Aided
cations,
including email, GIS system, web content management, and file and print services. The
Data Center in Las Vegas for availability, in the event of a loss to
supporting more than 65 City business units, out of which 70 servers are designated as
mission critical, including the public safety systems, payroll and financial systems,
permitting systems, parking system, and file and print services.
Implementation of a replacement SAN system would ensure the continued functionality,
and
digital information. It would also resolve the issues stated above, alleviate the risk of
data loss due to hardware failures, provide enhanced performance with faster, more
reliable solid-state drive technology, deliver more advanced operational features, and
would be equipped to host performance-demanding applications, such as the new ERP
Tyler/Munis and transaction-intensive Parking Access and Revenue Control systems.
The system replacement would include the purchase of sufficient usable storage
capacity for the next three years. The increase in storage would ease storage
restrictions on file servers and would accommodate for present needs and projected
growth for the next three years, with the assumption that the City would transition some
services to the Cloud (hosted services).
While most of the benefits related to performance may not be immediately apparent for
all of the business applications, those that are transaction intensive would benefit the
most from the replacement system. Moreover, the City is considering a virtual desktop
PC solution which is in-
new Solid-State Drive (SSD) technology included in the replacement system would offer
the greatest benefit around this solution. The new SAN solution also provides a
platform for hosted services of City business applications and systems under a Private
Cloud environment, which is critical to the orderly transition into other future potential
alternatives, such as Public Cloud hosting services, or a Hybrid Cloud environment.
applications and will have a major impact to the department operations. Staff is
diligently evaluating all City applications to identity those best suitable for transitioning
into the Public Cloud. Factors used to determine whether applications should be
transitioned to Cloud/hosted services include evaluating the performance of the
applications running under a hosted environment, dependencies of the applications on
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other in-house applications/data, privacy and security of data, and the cost of hosted
services. Currently hosted services are cost prohibitive in most cases, although this will
likely change in the future.
At this time, staff recommends executing a contractual services with Nth Generation for
the purchase of hardware and services related to the installation, configuration and
three year maintenance of a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) 3PAR SAN system for
both the Primary and Disaster Recovery Data Centers at a total cost not to exceed
$500,000, including 10% contingency. Funding for infrastructure replacement has been
set aside and is available in the Information Technology Replacement & Services Fund.
Vendor/Consultant Selection
On February 26, 2016, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for design,
configuration and installation services for a replacement Storage Area Network for the
-line bidding site, and notices were advertised in the Santa Monica Daily
Press in accordance with City Charter and Municipal Code provisions. 1,215 vendors
were notified, 58 vendors downloaded the RFP and 13 firms responded. Proposals
were submitted by the following companies: Scale Datacom, Sysorex, Nth Generation,
P1Sidepath, TWE, ePlus (proposed three solutions), VPLS (Proposed two solutions),
ViON and SigmaNET. Proposals were evaluated based on the following criteria:
Technical Merit/Design of Product, Price, Experience and References, Warranty and
Support, Implementation Team, and Project Timeline. Responses to the RFP were
reviewed by a selection panel of staff from the Information Systems Department.
Staff then interviewed 3 shortlisted firms. Based on this criteria and criteria in SMMC
2.24.073, staff recommends Nth Generation as the best qualified firm to provide
hardware and services related to installation, configuration and three year maintenance
solution implements a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) 3PAR SAN system for both
the Primary and Disaster Recovery Data Centers. The solution is designed to provide
high performance and high availability along with specific features that enhance the
HPE server environment and integrates seamlessly with the virtualization, backup data
protection and disaster recovery technologies already in place in the City. It is based on
Solid-State Drive (SSD) technology that delivers a more robust performance and is
requirement for present and future (3-5 years) storage capacity needs and was priced
significantly less than similar SSD only solutions proposed by other bidders and slightly
more expensive than other proposed hybrid solutions. The advantage in performance
and reliability of
the hybrid models. Maintenance (parts and labor) for the 3PAR, beyond the initial 3
years included in the proposal is in line with the other similar solutions.
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Nth Generation has implemented similar solutions for public and private agencies,
including the City of Moreno Valley (CA), the Gemological Institute of America
(Carlsbad, CA) and Volcano/Phillips (San Diego, CA). Additionally, Nth has an
extended list of clients in various market segments (Enterprise, Health Care, Financial,
Media & Entertainment, and Manufacturing) as well as City and County Agencies (San
Diego, Los Angeles, Irvine, Orange, and Manhattan Beach).
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
The agreement to be awarded to Nth Generation is for an amount not to exceed
$500,000, including 10% contingency. Funds are available in the FY 2015-16 Capital
Improvement Program in account C55000314.589000.
Prepared By:
Sarkis Metspakyan, Systems and Network Manager
Approved Forwarded to Council
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Reference:
Agreement
No.
10303
(CCS)