HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-05-2005-9cORANGE COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT
Meeting Date: December 5, 2005
Action Agenda
Item No. ~ -L
SUBJECT: Capital Purchase for Server Replacement
DEPARTMENT: Information Technologies/
Purchasing
PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No
ATTACHMENT(S):
SAN Quote Detail
12/01/05 IT Committee Chair Memo
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Todd Jones, 245-1709
Pam Jones, 245-2652
PURPOSE: To consider authorizing the purchase of a computer server dedicated to storing and
managing countywide data from 4Front Technologies, via pricing from the purchase contract
awarded by the State of North Carolina.
BACKGROUND: The County s reliance on technology has increased appreciably over the past
few years. This increased reliance has been a key element in allowing the County to provide
new and improved setvices to the public without a proportional increase in staff, Much of the
County's information assets are created, maintained and archived in digital format. The
County's needs far highly reliable data storage and retention have become critical. The
recommended equipment purchase that is the subject of this agenda item will:
Provide better retention of the County's digital information
• Produce increased availability of services to public and employees
• Consolidate data management needs with full (backup) redundancy, improving successful
backup operations from current 89% to upwards of 99%
• Replace unreliable servers, same more than 8 years old, that put vital County data and
service availability at risk
• Boost "up time" network performance so that outages are fewer and shorter
• Facilitate transition to a newer, more stable e-mail system -the County's #1 business
application
• Permit redirection of IT departmental focus from server system (hardware) problems to
business solution (software) projects
• Be funded through the 2005-06 allocation already approved by the BOCC and already
appropriated through the IT Capital Project Qrdinance
Centralized Storage
The County has 6 file servers spread throughout the County. The distribution of these servers
was historically necessitated by the lack of high-speed network connectivity. However, as the
County has upgraded major portions of the Countyy's network, a more centralized consolidation
of data management is possible and preferable. A Storage Area Network allows the County to
manage all its data in an aggregated storage environment, with full data redundancy and the
ability to cheaply and incrementally add more storage without disrupting service to citizens.
Server Replacement Plan
These existing County file servers range in age from 4 to 8 years, This is beyond the service
expectancy far servers, and vendor support accordingly tends to be on a "best effort" basis. The
potential for catastrophic failure of one or more of these servers is probable in the next year and
remedy could take several days, during which time, mission critical data could be unavailable
and service to the public disrupted. The County's Strategic Plan far technology calls for the
timely and pro-active replacement of servers to ensure continuous availability of critical services
and to ensure technology currency that is critical for the progress of automation, Server
replacement funding has been a critical component of the approved 2005/06 CIP.
Reliability
The continuous availability of data throughout the County has become a critical need. Across
the County, the overall availability of data is measured at 99.4%, As the current servers get
older and less reliable, this number is declining, Outages in the County's current server
infrastructure can render data unavailable in a range of time from several minutes in minor
cases to a week or mare in cases of catastrophic failure. For example, in December of 2004,
the 7 year-old server used for Permitting, Inspections, Animal Shelter management and Animal
Control failed catastrophically, It took approximately 40 hours to restore access to the data on a
new server. During that time, Permitting, Inspections and Animal services were unable to
access historical data, enter new data or track daily operations, This disruption took several
days after the repair to fully recover from. It should be noted that this recovery time was
atypically brief.
Conversely, Storage Area Networks have impressive availability figures, Properly configured
Storage Area Networks boast uptime figures of 99,99% and better, This level of availability
ensures that County operations continue with minimal interruptions and data is continually
accessible to ensure services are delivered efficiently. Further, if application servers that use
the Storage Area Networks catastrophically fail, the rebuild time for a new server can be
reduced to less than an hour,
Archival
The County has been archiving data to tape storage for several years now. This archival
process ensures Orange County can recover from myriad disasters as well as ensure
accidentally erased data can be recovered, The current technology to archive data is strained
by the amount of data growth over the years, The nightly process of archiving data is barely
completing in time for resumption of normal office hours at 8:00 a,m, As the County provides
more services during the night hours, the ability to archive data non-intrusively become
compromised with existing technology.
Currently, archival success rates using the County's current technologies are averaging an 89%
success rate (this does not imply that any data is lost, merely that on any given night, 11 % of
data may not have been adequately backed up and an earlier backup tape would have to be
used in the event of catastrophic failure). Considering that County data is an irreplaceable
public asset, the need to adopt a solution with inherently better retention rates is acute. A
Storage Area Network allows for quick archiving of data locally, which can periodically be
transferred to tape (without affecting citizen services) for storage offsite, Success rates far
Storage Area Network archival technology exceed 99% in the field.
Criticality with newer applications
The County is currently experiencing significant issues with its email vendor, Fiscal distress has
forced the vendor to cut back significantly on support for certain products deemed not in the
company s long term strategic interest, including their email product. The manifestation of this
for Orange County has been a notable decrease in email stability due tc defective software
releases and inadequate assistance from the vendor. The County's IT staff is planning a
transition to a newer system that will provide greater stability and vendor commitment,
Enterprise level email systems perform optimally with a Storage Area Network.
Similarly, other County applications, such as the GIS system, are currently constrained with
existing hardware. By implementing a Storage Area Network, enterprise functionality can be
achieved with the GIS system and information can mare effectively be shared among County
departments and local municipalities., Now that the County is moving more toward database
applications, the performance, reliability and data retention capabilities of a Storage Area
Network become increasingly critical.
Efficiencies
Another benefit of a Storage Area Network is the ability to use lower cost servers, By replacing
aging application servers with new servers that have no local data storage, the costs of servers
are reduced by up to 50%, This extends the service life of servers while allowing much quicker
recovery from hardware defects,
The Storage Area Network will streamline many of the IT Department's data management
duties, while providing mare reliable, flexible and efficient data storage for County staff, While
the incremental efficiencies are difficult to aggregate and quantify, anecdotal input from various
departments suggests a significant amount of time across all Orange County staff is spent
addressing data management and system availability, time which would be greatly alleviated
with the implementation of a Storage Area Network.
Information Technology Committee Review
The ITC has discussed the need for enhancing the County's server network, most recently at its
November 29, 2005 meeting, A memo from the ITC Chair on behalf of the committee endorsing
the proposed SAN acquisition is provided as an attachment to this agenda item.
Authorization to Purchase
The attached equipment and services list reflects the proposed purchase in order to address
the aforementioned needs, The vendor, 4Front Systems, Inc. has been awarded a contract for
such equipment by the State of North Carolina; therefore the County is not bidding the items
separately.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The estimated capital outlay for the Storage Area Network based on
State contract prices is $92,522.20. This includes hardware, software, implementation services,
training and maintenance for the first three years. The funds for this purchase have already
been appropriated by the BOCC in the FY 2005-06 Information Technology Capital Project
Ordinance.
RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board authorize the purchase of
the Storage Area Network as outlined in the attached equipment/services list from 4-Front
Systems, Inc, Raleigh, NC; and authorize the Purchasing Director to execute any paperwork
necessary to effect the purchase,
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Memorandum
To: The Orange County board of County Commissioners
CC: Todd Jones, Orange County Chief Information Officer
From: Frederick S. Hrown, Chair of the Information Technologies Advisory Committee
Date: 12/1/2005
Re: Server Replacement Request
The lnformation Technology Advisory Committee has reviewed the CIO's proposal to purchase a
Storage Area Network as part of Orange County's server replacement program., After evaluating the
technical and strategic merit of tftis proposal, the Committee offers a strong endorsement to proceed
with the purchase of the Storage Area Network technology as outtined in the abstract.
The benefits of a Storage Area Network are numerous, as documented in the abstract Given recent
issues regarding the viability of the County's email system and its vendor, there is considerable
urgency to proceed with the implementation of this technology, which wilt be essential in the
migrrtion to ahigh-availability email system as well as overall availability of the County's digital
information assets.
On behalf of Orange County's Information Technology Advisory Committee, f recommend the board
approve the purchase of a Storage Area Network as outlined in the abstract.
Regazds, j ^ y~
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Frederick S. Hrown