Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF CONTRACT SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION FOR SUPPORT SERVICES RELATED TO THE PURCHASE OF TWO RUBRIK BACKUP SYSTEMS AND FOR PURCHASE OF TWO RUBRIK BACKUP SYSTEMS (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
The City departments use competitively solicited cooperative purchase agreements by other government agencies as allowed by Carson Municipal Code Section 2611(g). National Association of State Procurement Officials (“NASPO”) is a cooperative purchasing agency facilitating public procurement solicitations and agreements using a lead-state model. In 2016, through the NASPO program, the State of Utah awarded Master Agreement No. AR2472 to Carahsoft Technology Corporation (“Carahsoft”) for certain cloud solutions and data backup services after going out for competitive bidding. The master agreement will expire on September 15, 2026. Carahsoft is also a party to the State of California’s Participating Addendum (contract # 7-17-70-40-05) which, together with the Master Agreement, allows City to avail itself of the same low pricing made available in those two agreements. Utilizing the lowest prices obtained through the Master Agreement, staff is recommending City Council (i) approval for purchase of a data backup product identified as Rubrik r6404s, manufactured by Rubrik, Inc., and (ii) approval of an Agreement for Contract Services with Carahsoft for backup data systems support services whereby payments will be made to Impex Technologies, Inc. (“Impex”), which is an authorized reseller under Master Agreement No. AR2472.
Purchase of Rubrik r6404s will be made via a Purchase Order with Impex at a cost of $108,788.47. Section 2605(b) of the City’s Municipal Code requires City to enter into a contract for purchases of any personal property, including materials, supplies and equipment, for $25,000 or more over a fiscal year unless a contract waiver is authorized by the City Manager. City Manager has authorized such waiver of contract for purchase of the Rubrik r6404s, which will allow purchase of the Rubrik r6404s with a simple Purchase Order provided City Council approves the purchase.
The contract for support services with Carahsoft will be for $11,173.21.
The City’s current antiquated backup system is not adequate to help recover quickly from a virus or ransomware attack. Also, it is expensive to continue to store backup data offsite. Information Technologies is requesting City Council’s approval to replace this critically important protection solution with a more modern solution that can recover files faster, ensure ability to replicate data over the City’s network, and is a reliable next generation solution. Procurement of Rubrik r6404s will enable City to meet this objective. Staff proposes to purchase this solution through the Master Agreement at the lowest cost obtained through the State of Utah’s competitive bidding process, at a deeply discounted price of a total of $119,961.68 for 2 Backup appliances and 3 years of hardware and software support ($11,173.21 for support services and $108,788.47 for purchase of Rubrik r6404s).
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. AWARD an Agreement for Contract Services with Carahsoft Technology Corporation in the amount of $11,173.21 over the next 3 years;
2. AUTHORIZE the Mayor to execute the agreement, following approval as to form by the City Attorney.
3. APPROVE purchase of Rubrik r6404s from Impex Technologies, Inc. via Purchase Order for the amount of $108,788.47.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE any other action the City Council deems appropriate.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City’s current backup system was put in place years ago to guard against accidental and purposeful data deletion as well as to ensure the ability to recover from such an event. Due to the stepped-up ransomware attacks in the US against government entities in the past few months, a backup/restore test was performed in March and it was discovered that the recovery time would take roughly 3-5 weeks if more than 15-20 servers were affected (the City currently has over 50 servers). In addition, the backup data that is being sent and stored out of state to ensure we are able to recover from a local disaster would take even longer to recover from as well as being expensive to maintain.
Replacing the current outdated backup system and replicating backup data over the City’s internal network to a local City facility (Yard) will ensure shorter recovery times if infiltrated.
Although the City’s contractual support and maintenance obligation with its current backup system (Quest Rapid Recovery) has ended in June of this year, it was decided to not pursue a renewal with them at 24k and instead, spend the funds on a more modern solution that meets the City’s needs. Information Technologies is requesting to replace this critically important protection solution with a faster and more reliable next generation solution, Rubrik r6404s, manufactured by Rubrik, Inc. (“Rubrik”).
Section 2611(g) of the CMC allows City, through its Purchasing Manager, to dispense with competitive bidding processes to purchase materials, supplies, equipment, or services by utilizing a cooperative purchasing program engaged in by any local, county, State, or Federal public entity or entities, provided that: (1) the selected bidder was selected in compliance with the competitive bidding or proposal process requirements of any participating entity or association; (2) the Purchasing Manager determines that the competitive bidding or proposal process utilized is at least the same as that contained in the City’s Purchasing Ordinance (“Purchasing Ordinance”); and (3) the Purchasing Manager determines that, as a result of cooperative purchasing, the price of the materials, supplies, equipment, or services is likely to be lower than it would be if purchased directly by the City pursuant to the Purchasing Ordinance.
The City’s Purchasing Manager has determined that the competitive bidding or proposal process utilized by the State of Utah through the NASPO cooperative purchasing program is at least the same as that contained in the City’s Purchasing Ordinance, and has further determined that the pricing obtained through NASPO for the equipment and support services City seeks to acquire is likely to be lower than it would be if purchased directly by the City pursuant to the Purchasing Ordinance. Accordingly, the City is permitted to utilize and benefit from the competitive process engaged in through the NASPO program.
The contract for services will be with Carahsoft Technology Corporation (“Carahsoft”), with payments to be made to Impex Technologies, Inc. (“Impex”), Carahsoft’s authorized reseller, whereas the Purchase Order for purchase of Rubrik r6404s will be with Impex. City Manager has authorized waiver of the requirement to enter into a contract for purchase of Rubrik r6404s, pursuant to Section 2605(b) of the CMC.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
Funds for this item have been budgeted in account number 101-50-520-101-6020.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. NASPO Cooperative Purchasing Agreement
2. City Manager Contract Waiver per Section 2605(b) of CMC
3. IMPEX Technologies, Inc. Quotation ITIQ4616-01
4. Contract Agreement with Carasoft
Prepared by: Kevin Kennedy, Information Technology Manager