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Title:
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(1) Rescission of the Approval of an Agreement with Hewlett-Packard provided on December 10, 2007 and (2) Approval of the Purchase of Hewlett-Packard Servers/Storage Units and VMware Virtualization Software from Forsythe Solutions Group (Pleasanton, CA), to Consolidate Servers and Support Implementation of the Information Technology Department’s Green IT Initiative in the City’s Data Center.
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City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council 1) rescind the approval an agreement with
Hewlett-Packard provided on December 10, 2007; and 2) approve the purchase of
Hewlett-Packard servers/storage units and VMware virtualization software from
Forsythe Solutions Group (Pleasanton, CA), to consolidate servers/storage and
support implementation of the Information Technology Department’s Green IT
Initiative in the City’s data center in an amount not-to-exceed $178,689.06.
BACKGROUND:
At its December 10
th
2007 meeting, the City Council approved agenda item #A9,
(Attachment #1). This approved purchase of hardware and implementation services
directly from the Hewlett-Packard Company to support server consolidation. At the
top of page 5 of the staff report, IT staff noted that additional funding would be
needed to increase our data storage capability.
DISCUSSION:
Vendor Selection
Subsequent to City Council approval of the Agreement with Hewlett-Packard,
Information Technology staff met again with Hewlett-Packard to discuss the
implementation of server consolidation and to determine hardware and software
Meeting Date: 3/24/2008 Item Number: C-9
AGENDA ITEM: (1) Rescission of the Approval of an Agreement with Hewlett-
Packard provided on December 10, 2007 and (2) Approval of the Purchase of
Hewlett-Packard Servers/Storage Units and VMware Virtualization Software from
Forsythe Solutions Group (Pleasanton, CA), to Consolidate Servers and Support
Implementation of the Information Technology Department’s Green IT Initiative in
the City’s Data Center.
Contact Person/Dept.: John Richo Phone Number: 310-253-5950
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: [X]
Public Notification: E-Mail Master Notification List on 3/19/08, Hewlett Packard
representatives on 3/19/08, Forsythe Solutions representatives on 3/19/08.
Department Approval:
John Richo (03/17/08)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol Schwab (by H. Baker) (03/18/08)
Fiscal Impact Review:
Jeff Muir (by M. Noller) (03/19/08)
City Manager Approval:
Jerry B. Fulwood (03/19/08) City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
requirements necessary for the virtualized storage component. During those
discussions HP representatives suggested that due to the expert level technical
resources necessary for implementation it would be in the best interest of the City to
contract through a third party vendor (Forsythe Solutions Group).
We continued our discussions with both HP and Forsythe and in time it became
apparent that:
1. Most Forsythe staff are former HP employees and posses a high level of
expertise and knowledge of the equipment and its installation.
2. The availability of Forsythe staff to support our project was greater than the
availability of HP’s staff.
3. Forsythe could offer better pricing in their negotiation with HP than HP’S
pricing to local governments, which is based on WSCA (Western States
Contracting Alliance) pricing. (Attachment #2)
Based on the above, IT staff continued discussions with Forsythe with an eye toward
returning to the City Council with a recommendation for a vendor change.
Storage
Currently the City has 10.2 terabytes of storage, of which 5.1 terabytes are in use.
(Attachment #3). Although it appears that the City would have 5.2 terabytes
available, since this storage is directly attached to individual servers, it is readily
available to applications running on the individual server. To use storage on one
server for an application on another server presents both storage management and
networking inefficiencies. The following are examples of several applications that are
reaching a critical need for additional storage:
1. ArcGIS License Server (maps)
2. CA BrightStor backup
3. SAN Storage (JDE backup and city wide “common” storage including staff
reports that are in the Agenda process).
The technical solution for making essentially “dead” storage space available to all
applications is virtualized storage. Virtual storage is a storage management method
that pools data across separate storage systems and automatically allocates
capacity. Visibility and access for all storage data and systems is handled through a
central management console. In essence software pools and manages all storage.
Virtualized storage has additional benefits relating to backup and disaster recovery
which will be part of the implementation.
City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
Staff recommends two actions (1) rescission of the approval provided on December
10, 2007 and (2) approval of the attached quote (Attachment #4) from Forsythe
Solutions in the amount of $178,689.06 with applicable taxes to cover both server
and storage consolidation (virtualization).
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
Adequate funding is available in the fiscal 2007-08 Computer Replacement Fund
budget, account number 30724100.732150, to cover this purchase.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Staff Report of December 10
th
2007
2. E-Mail exchange between City CIO, and Forsythe Solutions
3. Data Storage Use.
4. Proposal from Forsythe Solutions.
MOTION:
That the City Council:
1. Rescind the approval provided on December 10, 2007 of an Agreement with
Hewlett-Packard Company (Oak Park, CA) for the Purchase of Servers and
Related Installation Services to Consolidate Servers and Support
Implementation of the Information Technology Department’s Green IT
Initiative in the City’s Data Center; and,
2. Approve the quotation submitted by Forsythe Solutions for the purchase of
servers and related storage and services to support consolidation in the City’s
Data Center for an amount not to exceed $178,689.06; and,
3. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare necessary documents, and
authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.