Title
Information Technologies recommending the Board:
1) Authorize the County to continue utilizing competitively-bid U.S. Communities Agreement 4400006644 with Insight Public Sector, Inc. for the purchase of Amazon cloud storage solutions; and
2) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute amendment 1 to Agreement 2191 with Insight Public Sector, Inc. for the purchase of Amazon cloud storage solutions, extending the term two years to April 30, 2021, and increasing the Not to Exceed amount from $20,000 to $60,000.
FUNDING: General Fund with partial cost recovery in future years through the A-87 Cost Plan.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
On September 20, 2016, the Board approved the use of U.S. Communities Agreement 400006644 with Insight Public Sector, Inc. for the purchase of Amazon cloud storage solutions, for an initial period ending 4/30/19. The U.S. Communities agreement has been extended for an additional two-year period, through 4/30/21. Consequently, the County needs to amend purchase agreement #2191 with Insight Public Sector for an additional two-year period to maintain cloud-based storage needs. Pricing details are specified in the contract and are based on usage, which may vary.
U.S. Communities is a recognized government purchasing alliance that assists participating public agencies to reduce the cost of puchased good and services through strategic sourcing that combines the volumes and the purchasing power of public agencies nationwide. This is accomplished through an award of competitively solicited contracts for high quality products and services, for use by participating agencies. Board Policy C-17, section 5.9, Exemptions from Competitive Process allows for exemption from competitive bidding requirements if the contract was awarded utilizing a competitive bidding process substantially the same as that utilized by the County.
Cloud storage for data backup gives the County two main advantages over on-site storage. First of all, it is instantly-and for all practical purposes, infinitely-expandable. The County can consume as much storage space as needed, with no prior requests or other arrangements necessary. Also, if the County reduces its storage footprint, costs will go down instantly. The County does not pay for storage space it is not using.
Secondly, cloud storage raises our Disaster Recovery posture significantly. Cloud backups are equivalent or better than off-site tape backups in every aspect. The County’s data is safe in the cloud if our data center is ever impacted by a disaster. With cloud backup, the County will be able to restore its data much faster than restoring from off-site tapes. The time required for retrieval, shipping, and restoring many terabytes of data from a tape drive can run many days or even weeks. With cloud backup, our data can begin restoring almost immediately; only an Internet connection is required.
ALTERNATIVES
If this agreement extension is not approved, the County may need to return to an on-site disk and off-site tape storage option, incurring costs for hardware, software, support services, tapes, and shipping services. This option also exposes the County to the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
The original Master Intergovernmental Cooperative Purchase Agreement and associated documents were approved by the Board on 09/20/16 (Legistar 16-0874).
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
Procurement & Contracts, County Counsel
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
It is recommended that the Board approve this item.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no change to Net County Cost. Funding is available in the Information Technologies Department budget in FY 2018-19 and will be available in future years.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Infrastructure
CONTACT
David Russell