DATE: March 22, 2022
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: CIO/Director of Information Technology
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Negotiate and Execute an Agreement with LookingPoint for Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) and VMWare Refresh in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $300,000
RECOMMENDATION
That Council adopts a resolution (Attachment II) authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with LookingPoint for Cisco UCS Server and VMWare refresh in an amount not-to-exceed $300,000.
SUMMARY
Cisco UCS is a data center server computer product composed of computing hardware, virtualization support and management software. UCS is the hardware that runs VMWare. VMWare is the backbone for City applications. It governs availability, resource allocation, and runs Microsoft servers. It allows for easy access of troubleshooting application performance issues and in the event of recovery, virtualization greatly reduces the restoration time as compared to building new physical servers. This is beneficial for the City and its residents because it enables applications to maximize their uptime to perform daily transactions with City Departments. Without regular updates of the UCS hardware and VMWare, the City’s applications run the risk of poor performance and possible unavailability.
BACKGROUND
The City received three quotes from qualified vendors for hardware and professional services to design and install a new UCS solution for the City. The chosen provider, LookingPoint, is a local business and their solution offers a high level of support and on-site monitoring; two highly desirable features sought after by the City. The City has worked with LookingPoint in the past and has found their work to be dependable and reasonably priced.
DISCUSSION
All on-premises City Hall virtual servers reside on Cisco UCS hosts, which have been in production for ten years. The UCS hosts are a critical piece of the City’s virtual infrastructure and host enterprise application servers responsible for the daily operation of the City. The UCS hosts are approaching end-of-life, which requires a hardware refresh to stay current.
As part of the procurement effort, IT reached out to Cisco for a list of their certified partners. Certified partners are previously vetted by Cisco and receive discounts on Cisco hardware. Based on this, IT reached out to several of the certified partners and received written proposals for the work. Thereafter, IT made a vendor selection based on the cheapest cost.
IT selected LookingPoint based on the following evaluation criteria: cost; availability of vendor level-one support; and availability of on-site monitoring. Level-one support ensures fast response time for technical issues and is important because issues with UCS typically impact all on-site applications and must be addressed immediately. On-site monitoring consists of tools that reside inside the network and will immediately notify IT of any hardware issues such that they can be addressed immediately to minimize potential downtime.
The chosen provider, LookingPoint, is a local business and the design offered by their engineers was clear, simple, and met IT’s needs for project implementation. LookingPoint also supplied several references for comparable governmental organizations as well as private companies. The review team found their solution to be cost-competitive.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priority of Improve Organizational Health. Specifically, this item relates to the implementation of the following project:
Project 17, Part 17b: Upgrade City network connections and speeds Staff is bringing forth this new item because of the need to provide cost-effective, secure, fast, and reliable communications within and connecting to the City of Hayward applications.
FISCAL IMPACT
Staff requests Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with LookingPoint not-to-exceed $300,000. The cost of the contract will be allocated via a transfer from the current IT Operating Funds Budget (Fund 730) and will be funded using the fund balance currently within the fund. Five-year maintenance and warranty are included in the cost of the contract.
NEXT STEPS
If Council authorizes the City Manager to negotiate and execute this agreement, then staff will schedule the project. Project kickoff would commence in April 2022 and take approximately two months to complete.
Prepared by: Carolyn Saputo, IT Manager Infrastructure Recommended by: Adam Kostrzak, CIO/Director of Information Technology Approved by:
_________________________________
Kelly McAdoo, City Manager