Title
Information Technologies Department recommending the Board:
1) Make findings in accordance with Procurement Policy C-17, Section 3.4 (4), that the purchases with ePlus Technology Inc. are exempt from Competitive Bidding due to there being a competitively bid contract with another public agency available;
2) Authorize the use of competitively bid Utah NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement AR3229 and the State of California Participating Addendum 7-20-70-47-06 between Palo Alto Networks, Inc. and the State of Utah as the lead public agency, for the renewal of Palo Alto Firewall support services for the County’s firewall infrastructure;
3) Approve and authorize the Purchasing Agent to issue a Purchase Order to ePlus Technology Inc. in the amount of $116,447.91 for the purchase of Palo Alto PA-3220 Firewall Support for the period of October 7, 2026, through August 31, 2028; and,
4) Approve and authorize the Purchasing Agent to issue a Purchase Order to ePlus Technology Inc. in the amount of $93,824.43 for the purchase of Palo Alto PA-850 Firewall Support for the period of October 7, 2026, through August 31, 2029.
FUNDING: General Fund, with partial cost recovery in future years through the A-87 Cost Plan.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. A firewall typically establishes a barrier between physical and logical network segments. The Information Technologies (IT) Department currently employs internal firewalls at several County locations which significantly reduce our cyber risk by creating additional security barriers between El Dorado County business departments. These firewalls are a critical component of the County's continued efforts to maintain existing technology infrastructure to provide flexible, fast, secure virtual workspace for all employees to be able to work from any device or location. The firewalls help provide...
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