Title
Information Technologies Department recommending the Board:
1) Make findings in accordance with Procurement Policy C-17, Section 3.4 (4), that the agreement with Insight Public Sector, Inc. is exempt from Competitive Bidding due to a competitively bid agreement being utilized;
2) Authorize the County to utilize competitively bid Agreement 23-6692-03 between Insight Public Sector, Inc. and Cobb County Georgia, as the lead agency, for the purchase of Amazon cloud storage solutions;
3) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute Agreement 7808 with Insight Public Sector, Inc., under Agreement 23-6692-03 between Insight Public Sector, Inc. and Cobb County, for the use of Amazon cloud storage solutions effective November 1, 2023, through April 30, 2026, in the amount of $165,000; and
4) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute any necessary amendments relating to Agreement 7808, excluding term extensions and increases to the not-to-exceed amount, contingent upon approval by County Counsel and Risk Management.
FUNDING: General Fund with partial recovery from the Countywide Cost Allocation Plan.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The Information Technologies (IT) Department is requesting the County execute Agreement 7808 with Insight Public Sector, Inc. to maintain cloud-based storage needs for a renewal period beginning November 1, 2023, through April 30, 2026, with an approximate cost of $165,000. Pricing details are specified in the contract and are based on usage, which may vary based on the County's needs.
IT is requesting to utilize competitively bid Agreement 23-6692-03 between Insight Public Sector, Inc. and Cobb County Georgia, as the lead agency, to purchase Amazon cloud storage solutions. Agreement 7808 with Insight Public Sector, Inc. will replace existing Agreement 2191 with Insight Public Sector, Inc., which is set to expire on October 31, 2023.
Cloud storage for data backup gives the County two main advantages over on-site storage. First, 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 improves disaster recovery capacity 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
There are no feasible short-term alternatives to continuing to utilize Amazon cloud storage services. If this renewal agreement 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
23-0390 - 04/11/2023 - Extended the term of Agreement 2191 to 10/31/23
21-0339 - 03/23/2021 - Increased the Contract NTE for Agreement 2191 to $370,000 and approved the amendment extending the term to 04/30/2023
20-0825 - 07/14/2020 - Increased the Contract NTE for Agreement 2191 to $135,000
19-0624 - 04/30/2019 - Increased the Contract NTE for Agreement 2191 to $60,000 and approved the amendment extending the term to 04/30/2021
16-0874 - 09/20/2016 - Authorized the County to utilize U.S. Communities Agreement 4400006644 for Amazon cloud storage
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
Procurement & Contracts, County Counsel
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funding is available in the Information Technologies Department budgets for Fiscal Year 2023-24 and will be available in future years for cloud storage costs.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Infrastructure
CONTACT
Tonya Digiorno, Director of Information Technologies