Title
Chief Administrative Office and Information Technologies recommending the Board:
1) Declare an emergency to purchase and replace critical equipment in the Information Technology Data Center; and
2) Authorize the Chief Technology Officer to work with Purchasing and dispense with competitive bidding due to emergency in accordance with County Ordinance Code section 3.12.160 to replace the HVAC system, the Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) and Power Distribution Unit along with incidental installation costs.
FUNDING: Accumulated Capital Outlay (ACO).
Body
BUDGET SUMMARY: |
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Total Estimated Cost |
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$ 450,000 |
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Funding |
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Budgeted |
$259,500 |
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New Funding - ACO |
$190,500 |
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Savings |
$ |
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Other - Not Budgeted |
$ |
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Total Funding Available |
$ 450,000 |
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Change To Net County Cost |
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Fiscal Impact/Change to Net County Cost: The FY2011-12 Accumulated Capital Outlay budget includes $259,500 for the purchase of equipment. County staff is still in the process of getting quotes which will provide more accurate pricing for this purchase. The facilities budget is outdated and we expect the quotes to come in higher. The figure of $450,000 is our best estimate at this time. There is sufficient fund balance within the Accumulative Capital Outlay fund to cover these costs.
It should also be noted that there will be incidental installation costs to install the equipment. It is not yet clear whether or not any building modifications will be needed. In the event, the building modfications are required, staff will return to Board with information and the required budget transfer.
Background: The Information Technology Data Center is where the mainframe and many of the County's enterprise servers are located. In addition, it houses the main backbone for the County network. The County has had a critical need to replace the HVAC units, of which there are three, as well as the UPS and Power Distribution Unit. Estimated funding for this project has been included in the ACO budget for the past few years; however, due to budget and resource constraints, the project never got the attention it required.
There are three HVAC units that cool the data center. At this time, one of the three units has been non operational since 2009. Of the two remaining units, there are repairs that need to be made; however parts are difficult to obtain or no longer available due to the age of the equipment which exceeds 20 years old. Information Technologies and DOT Facilities have done what they can to maximize the use of the equipment; however we are now in a situation where the mechanical issues, not the least of which is flooding under the raised floor which presents a risk to the equipment running in the Center.
The Uninterruptable Power Supply and Power Distribution Unit are also 20+ years old. The UPS is critical to keeping the Mainframe and enterprise servers up in the event of a power outage. IT has been advised by the company that does the maintenance that they will soon no longer be able to provide maintenance due to the age of the units and lack of available parts. In a recent power outage, the UPS was able to keep the Data Center up for approximately 15 minutes, however, the batteries that store the power are old and don't re-charge as easily as new batteries do, so there is significant concern whether we can sustain the Mainframe and servers as we move into the winter storm season.
Reason for Recommendation:
County staff has been in contact with Precision Environmental & Power, Inc. located in El Dorado Hills. Precision Environmental is the regional supplier of Liebert equipment which is what the County currently has in the Data Center. Precision Environmental was contacted several weeks ago, toured our Data Center, and has been in the process of working with staff to determine the best and most economical replacement for our failing equipment.
Research indicates that Liebert equipment is one of the lead brands used in data centers. It also appears that replacing our old equipment with newer same brand equipment will be the most cost effective approach.
Due to the critical nature of this request, the Information Technology department is requesting that the Board dispense with competitive bidding due to emergency in accordance with County Ordinance Code section 3.12.160. County staff will continue to work with Precision Environmental. We have determined that even if we were to go out for bids, all vendors would be purchasing from Precision Environmental who is also located in El Dorado Hills.
Action to be taken following Board approval:
Contact:
Concurrences: