Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: APPROVAL OF FISCAL YEAR 24-25 IT SERVICES AND
EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT
Date: October 8, 2024
Written by: Angela Courter, Director of Administrative Services Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a motion authorizing the City Manager to proceed with the expenditures and agreement amendments necessary to implement the proposed projects and supporting IT services, not to exceed the adopted FY 2024/25 budgeted amount ($267,000).
Background
KLH Consulting, Inc. is an Information Technology consulting company based in Santa Rosa, CA with over 40 years of experience providing professional IT services. The City initially contracted with KLH for Datawatch services and IT infrastructure management in 2015 and renewed the contract in 2022 for a period of five years. Under this contract the City leverages KLH Consulting as our independent third-party IT consultants who functions as a “virtual” IT department. Critical services they provide include “Help Desk” support as well as rolling on-site support time at a reduced cost. These should meet the needs of the City and control costs, which will be re-evaluated at the end of the contract term.
Analysis/Discussion
Within the adopted Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget includes $267,000 as an allocated contract services for a combination of third-party IT management services, software renewals, and IT projects. For this year, it includes the following ongoing services for monitoring, maintenance and system administration, as well as additional projects outlined as follows:
Monitoring
Data Watch actively monitors critical devices and services and will generate notifications when network events occur outside normal parameters. Active monitoring of critical network components can dramatically reduce or eliminate computing problems while maximizing the speed, performance, and stability of your network.
Network monitoring will be performed 24x7 via an installed device software agent and/or a KLH-provided Windows network monitor (called a “probe”). The agents/probes are configured to monitor specific network parameters to detect and report problems before they escalate to system downtime, data loss or expensive repair issues. Items monitored include:
• Server and Workstation operation and performance
• Hardware integrity
• Storage space
• Data backup job success
• Firewall status and security (for available technologies) • VPN tunnels (for available technologies)
• Anti-virus protection (for available technologies)
• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) monitoring
Maintenance and System Administration
The Data Watch team maintains specified network devices and applies software patches and security updates, clears temp files, de-fragment disks, tests backup operation, and optimizes hardware configurations.
System maintenance includes both hardware and software components including:
• Manage Active Directory Access Controls
• Install approved Microsoft Critical Updates and Patches • Scan and detect Malware (as required)
• Manage anti-phishing programs and testing
• Review automated virus definition update process
• Remove temp files on servers
• Defragment servers
• Review and update firewall access policies
• Apply proper firmware updates and patches to firewalls, routers, and switches • Check the health of peripherals, such as UPS(s)
• Review hard drive space, memory, and CPU utilization for failure or problems and optimize configuration
• Ensure backups are running properly without errors and perform a test file restore • Update third-party plug-ins and utilities
• Apply proactive scripts to auto heal known issues and to address pre-failure trends • Apply policy scripts to assure KLH best practice standards (when reviewed and approved by Customer)
KLH also performs Remote Workstation Maintenance including:
• Install approved Microsoft Critical Updates and Patches • Check for Virus definitions, history, and quarantine
• Defragment hard drives on Windows Operating Systems
KLH performs ongoing system administration & tuning as required to maintain performance levels consistent with current operations.
Projects
KLH further provides physical system updates and infrastructure upgrades based on best practices. An inventory of hardware systems is managed and scheduled for timely replacement prior to obsolescence.
The proposed replacements for Fiscal Year 2024/25 are estimated at an amount not to exceed one hundred and fifty-five thousand ($155,000), constituting the following:
• End User Devices (Laptops and Desktop Computers) – KLH maintains an end user replacement schedule based on the age of devices in service. in the prior year there were a total of eight devices replaced. For fiscal year 2024-25 the City has included the replacement of eighteen workstations with a total cost of approximately $40,000. • Continued Switch Replacements – the City has continued to work on replacing switches with a combination of updated direct cabling or new managed switches where possible to improve the resiliency and reliability of the infrastructure. The total cost of these projects are estimated at approximately $76,000.
• Other projects total $35,000 including – (1) Due to age, a potential server migration to a hosed offsite location as well as a downscaled on-prem server to allow for improve operational resiliency and reduced cost (2) three battery replacements for UPS devices, (3) replacing eight wireless access points to improve wireless access around the Civic Center, (4) IT support for other outside party managed projects including SCADA IT systems replacement for public works and MDC replacement for the police department and (5) supporting the City moving from .org to .gov.
• Additional other potential projects include penetration testing, windows upgrades, engineering security hardening, an “IT policy update” and creation of a Disaster Recovery checklist including a test.
Financial Considerations
In the adopted fiscal year 2024-2025 budget, the City Council authorized allocated contract services balance of $267,000 which includes $112,000 for monitoring, maintenance, and system administration as well as $155,000 for proposed IT projects including the scheduled replacement of end user devices and hardware. As such no additional budget adjustment is required at this time. If additional projects are evaluated and deemed necessary staff will bring any required budget adjustment to council.
Environmental Issues
Where it can be determined with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA review.
This general rule can be applied to activities which could be subject to the CEQA process, but which logic dictates should not be subject to CEQA review. Therefore, based on the information provided above, the proposed action is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 14.03.021 of the CEQA Guidelines in that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant impact on the environment.