Title
Information Technologies Department recommending the Board:
1) Make findings in accordance with Purchasing Ordinance 3.12.160, Section C, that the continuation of Crowdstrike Falcon Complete managed detection and response products and services is exempt from competitive bidding;
2) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to issue a Purchase Order in the amount of $32,775.52 for the period of June 5, 2022 to March 3, 2023 for additional licenses for necessary security endpoint protection; and
3) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to accept and execute Crowdstrike quote Q-441989.
FUNDING: General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
Since January 2018, the Information Technologies (IT) Department has used Crowdstrike Falcon advanced breach and endpoint protection services with Antivirus, Threat Intelligence, USB Device Control, and Threat Hunting capabilities. In March 2022, IT upgraded to Falcon Complete managed detection and response (MDR) services, which delivers 24/7 expert management, monitoring, and response for the Crowdstrike Falcon platform. Falcon Complete is CrowdStrike’s most comprehensive endpoint protection solution. It delivers unparalleled security by augmenting Falcon Prevent next-generation antivirus, Falcon Insight endpoint detection and, Falcon Identity Threat Protection and Falcon OverWatch managed threat hunting together with the expertise and 24/7 engagement of the Crowdstrike Falcon Complete team. The team manages and actively monitors the Falcon platform for customers, remotely remediating incidents in minutes at the endpoint, cloud workload, and identity layers.
El Dorado County currently has endpoint licenses for 1,800 devices, but has over 2,240 managed devices. In order to fully protect all County devices, it is necessary to increase our endpoint licenses by 500, allowing for continued growth during our current term for services. IT is requesting a Purchase Order in the amount of $32,775.52 per quote Q-441989 be approved for the purchase of the additional licenses, starting June 5, 2022 and co-terming with our existing licenses on March 03, 2023. The total cost for Falcon Complete services and licenses for the current term, including this true-up, will be $140,041.33. Funds are available within the IT Fiscal Year (FY) 2021/22 budget for this year's expenses, and appropriations have been included in the FY 2022/23 budget to continue services. Previous purchases for the current term have been approved on Purchase Orders 22000706, 22000815, and 22000865.
Purchasing Ordinance 3.12.160, Section C, allows for the exemption from competitive bidding when competitive billing would produce no economic benefit to the County. This request is a true-up of license counts for existing established and approved services and licenses. Furthermore, while Crowdstrike Falcon is available through resellers, we have been partnering directly with Crowdstrike to procure licenses and Falcon Complete security services (since 2020 and 2022, respectively).
ALTERNATIVES
Should the Board opt not to approve this license increase, the County will not be able to provide adequate endpoint protection for all IT managed devices.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
Procurement & Contracts
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There are appropriations available for FY 2021-22 expenses and appropriations for FY 2022-23 expenses related to the Crowdstrike licenses and services are included in the Recommended Budget.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Infrastructure
CONTACT
Tonya Digiorno, Director of Information Technologies