HomeMy WebLinkAbout9 Computer Server Hardware and Software Agenda
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TRUCKEE DONNER
Public Utlky D'Istrict
—1d
A TION
To: Board of Directors
From: Ian Fitzgerald
Date: February 01, 2012
Subject: Consideration of the Purchase of Computer Server Hardware &
Software
1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD
Board approval is required for expenditures in excess of$15,000.
2. HISTORY
The District currently operates 27 servers - tasked to manage company email, monitor
and operate the network LAN, operate the OIS, Electric Design, Outage Management
and Customer Information databases, and maintain terabytes of file data important to
daily company activities.
3. NEW INFORMATION
In addition to the current server environment, new projects on the near horizon will
require new server hardware, including Building Security, Vehicle Maintenance, Voice-
Over-IP, Digital Media, Web Hosting and Water SCADA among others. Most of the
existing servers have exceeded their life expectancy and are in need to be upgraded.
Hardware upgrades will not only improve performance and capacity, but increase
intrusion security. We are at a point of server hardware turnover, where any decision
on the future of hardware design architecture today, will determine architectural design
for the next 10 years.
To minimize cost going forward, staff plans to consolidate the majority of District
servers into a blade server, Virtual management environment. This approach provides
for many advantages will be seen, including:
• Reduced Power Consumption and Improved Power Management
• Improved Disaster Management and Hardware/Software Failover
• Reduced Administration and Management Costs
• Increased Scalability- New servers can be added at little to no cost
• Reduced Costs
Reduced Power Consumption and Improved Power Management
Consolidation of individual servers into a blade server, virtual environment will reduce
power consumption by 96-97%. Additional savings will occur due to reduced cooling
loads.
Improved Disaster Management and Hardware/Software Failover
Most of our system servers are configured to ensure hard drive failures do not create
a loss of data, however they do not ensure fail-over or redundancy should a server
motherboard fail, or operating system crash. The proposed blade server configuration
will provide for replicated services to provide redundancies for a vast range of
hardware failover.
Lower Administration and Management Costs
Managing 27 servers spread throughout the District offices is time consuming. Having
the ability to manage all servers at one location will reduce administration and
maintenance costs to the District significantly. This will ensure quicker response times
and restoration of any hardware or software issues that may be encountered.
Reduced Upgrade Costs
The District is planning for several IT projects in the coming 3-5 years. Most of these
projects will require server hardware and software in order to support these
endeavors. Some the more critical projects include upgrading the Water SCADA;
adding building security devices; tracking vehicle inspections, maintenance, fuel
consumption and repairs; and finally adding digital media display to support the
District's customers and conservation programs. Depending on requirements, new
individual servers would cost between $6,000 and $10,000 each. The proposed
environment would allow these servers to be added to the existing design through
server virtualization with zero hardware cost.
The proposed blade server system (hardware and software) is from NetXperts; the
same company which our network switches was purchased from. This would ensure
there was one point of contact for all IT infrastructure support, ensure communication
between hardware devices is proven, and allow for quicker implementation and higher
confidence in the final build Out.
Section 3.08.060 of the District's code (Joint Purchasing with the State of California
and other public agencies) permits the District to take advantage of other agencies low
bids providing that competitive procurement procedures were followed. The costs
proposals are submitted on both the California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS) and
p
the Western States Contracting Alliance (WSCA), which both adhere to this section of
the District code.
Proposal put forth by NetXperts
NetXperts has put together a WSCA/CMAS quote that will handle all the District's
server requirements for the next 10 years. This design will reduce power, provide
disaster recovery and failover redundancy, and use future scalability and growth as
new IT project come on board.
CMAS Contract
1. Cisco UCS B Series Blade and Chassis = $63,672
2. 2nd Redundant Cisco B Series Chassis = $ 20,769
3. NetXpert Professional Services=$32,800
WSCA Contract
4. Cisco Storage Server& Virtual Software = $60,263
4. FISCAL IMPACT
Sufficient funds exist in the FY12 Budget for the purchase of the computer server
hardware and software.
Administrative Services, Server Replacement = $50,000
Power Supply, Server Replacement = $40,000
Water, New SCADA Servers = $20,000
Conservation Green Partners Program = $67,504
There is also a 5% contingency allowance for any potential change orders.
5. RECOMMENDATION
Approve the purchase of the proposed server hardware and professional services
.through NetXperts for the amount of $177,504, plus a 5% contingency, not to exceed
$186,379.
Stephen Hollabaugh Michael D. Holley
Assistant General Manager General Manager