City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: December 13, 2022
Agenda Item: 5.F
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Joseph Cevetello, Chief Information Officer, Information Services Department, Infrastructure and Cloud Services
Subject: Award Request for Proposal to Impex Technologies, Inc. for Modernization of the City's Data Center
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of Exemption pursuant to 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
2. Award RFP #316 to Impex Technologies, Inc, a California-based corporation, for Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) and Cloud-hosted Disaster Recovery solution to provide on-premises Nutanix server equipment, installation, and integration services to replace the existing Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers and storage systems; and
3. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with Impex Technologies, Inc., in an amount of $933,273 for three (3) years, with two additional one-year renewal options of $311,091 per year for a total amount not to exceed $1,555,455. (including a 10% contingency), with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
The server and data storage equipment in the City’s data center are outdated, out of warranty, and must be replaced and modernized to meet the current demand for business software applications. The replacement of obsolete server and data storage equipment is essential to ensure business continuity and reliable services for the public. The Information Services Department replaces server and data storage equipment on a seven-year cycle; the last replacement was in 2016. Following a competitive Request for Proposal process, staff recommends Impex Technologies, 2 of 5
Inc. as the best bidder to provide replacement server and data storage equipment and associated services for the City’s Data Center modernization initiative.
Discussion
The City maintains a centralized data center facility located in City Hall. The data center hosts the City’s business software applications and data, including servers supporting public safety systems, library systems, permitting, water-utility billing, financials and many other systems used by City staff in support of City services.
There are approximately three hundred servers and data storage systems housed in the data center that support all City operations. The City also maintains server equipment at an alternate data center location in Las Vegas, Nevada. The backup data center location serves as the City’s disaster recovery site to ensure business continuity in the event of a total loss of the City’s primary data center in City Hall.
In 2016, the City replaced server and data storage systems in the City’s main data center and backup data center locations by deploying Hewlett-Packard storage and server equipment. The Hewlett-Packard server and storage equipment is nearly seven years old and is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Further, this critical data center equipment is currently at capacity and cannot be upgraded to meet increasing computing and data storage capacity demands.
Since 2016, data center and storage technologies have evolved and there are more modern and efficient technologies available that are hosted in “the cloud.” These technologies have high availability, reliability, and integrated disaster recovery. As part of this data center modernization project, the City will leverage modern cloudbased technologies to implement a hybrid cloud infrastructure (HCI) based upon the Nutanix HCI solution. The Nutanix HCI solution unifies data center systems, including computing, storage, networking, virtualization, and replaces proprietary, expensive legacy infrastructure with a private/public cloud platform. The solution will help save data center maintenance costs and free up staff time from lower value activities like configuration and patching to focusing on innovation and digital 3 of 5
transformation. The Nutanix HCI solution is a comprehensive solution that will replace both the City’s main data center and the secondary disaster recovery data center.
The Information Services Department estimates a cost savings of $112,409.44 annually by modernizing the City’s data center infrastructure. In 2019, the City’s annual cost to maintain the current legacy data center infrastructure was over $385,000. 2019 was the last full year in data center expenses since all systems fell out of maintenance in the last two years. The cost of maintenance for the City’s legacy data center infrastructure has increased since 2019 and has become cost prohibitive because the equipment is no longer supported by the manufacturer. The data center modernization initiative will lead to indirect cost savings in staff time because there will be less hardware to maintain in the City Hall data center.
Environmental Finding
Staff recommends the Council adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
Vendor Selection
Bidder Recommendation
Best Qualified Person/Firm Impex Technologies, Inc.
Evaluation Criteria Design & technical capabilities and ability to meet requirements, price, stability and references, firm’s experience with projects of similar complexity and nature, and value-added services.
Municipal Code SMMC 2.24.190
RFPs Received
DataOn, Inc. Impex
Technologies,
Inc.
Nth Generation
Computing, Inc
Kyndryl, Inc. Zones, Inc
RFP Data
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Posted On Posted On
Advertised In
(City Charter & SMMC)
Vendors
Downloaded
Date Publicly
Opened
5/5/2022 City's Online
Bidding Site Santa Monica Daily Press 44 6/24/2022
Justification to Award
Impex Technologies, Inc. is deemed the best bidder due to their industry expertise and thorough responses submitted under each evaluation criteria. Impex Technologies, Inc. demonstrated a clear understanding of the scope of services and have successfully completed similar projects for the City of Pasadena, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, California State University, Long Beach, and Dominguez Hills.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve available funding from the Information Technology Replacement and Services Fund to award a contract with Impex Technologies, Inc. to provide Hyperconverged Infrastructure and Cloud-hosted Disaster Recovery solutions. The requested amount of $311,091 is the first annual payment under the proposed three-year contract. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
FY 2022-23
Budget
Request
Amount
Future Years’
Request Amount
CIP Account # Total Contract
Amount
$311,091 $1,244,364 C7100030.689000 $1,555,455
Prepared By: Sarkis Metspakyan, Systems & Network Manager Approved Forwarded to Council
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Attachments:
A. Oaks_Data Center