City Council
MEETING DATE: 6/13/2018
TITLE:
Title
Network Infrastructure Upgrade
End
FROM:
Tami E. Scott, Administrative Services Director
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the upgrade of the Network Infrastructure in City and Public Safety Buildings.
Body
BACKGROUND:
In 2006, Council approved the upgrade of the network infrastructure, phone system, and backup power supplies (UPS) for City Hall, Police Department, Fire Department, and Public Work’s buildings. The network infrastructure is very critical to the City’s operations, which provides communication, access to information, and keeps our Public Safety and City operations running. Currently the City’s network infrastructure and phone system are slow, outdated, and End of Life; which means that it is no longer supported by the manufacturer, no more updated software is available, and parts are hard to find. The phone handsets act as a gateway to network access because computers connect to the phone directly. Since our phone handsets are old and have slow connection, the network connection of the computers will also be slow. The latest phone system software is no longer compatible with the majority of the old phone handsets. The backup power supplies for these network devices located in each electrical room no longer work.
In this current technology age, more staff, especially Public Safety, work on data that requires more bandwidth, such as data video uploads and downloads than ever before. Our old network equipment is slow and needs to keep up with today’s technology and staffing processes.
DISCUSSION:
All old network equipment in the City and Public Safety buildings will need to be replaced, which includes: switches, routers, wireless access points, and phone systems. This upgrade will ensure our network infrastructure is up-to-date. The new network backbone will have 10GB, which is 10x what we currently have. New UPS will also need to be installed in each Telco room to provide backup power for the equipment.
For the network equipment, staff has chosen to stay with the brand Cisco, it has been robust for the City for several years and is used more widely by government and private entities than any other brand. Staff is recommending the purchase of the equipment through Convergeone, a reseller of Cisco equipment, who offered the lowest price.
Why upgrade network infrastructure now?
Cathedral City’s network infrastructure equipment (switches, routers, access points, etc.) dates back over 12 years to the time that the MIS Department transitioned the City from a traditional telephone and network system to Voice over IP (VoIP) phones and updated network equipment. Network equipment is traditionally supported by the manufacturer for a 5-year period from the purchase date, this includes hardware and most importantly operating system support. In today’s highly challenging world of network security, support of the operating system including security patches and service packs is critical. The City must stay current on the equipment front to ensure operability of public safety, disaster preparedness, and City business systems in support of the citizens of Cathedral City. The City’s use of the current network equipment for these 12 years has taken the investment well past the period of industry standard replacement.
Why can’t we keep current equipment?
As all City network infrastructure equipment is past the end-of-life period it is crucial that the equipment be upgraded now. The risk of continuing the use of equipment without current operating system support puts the City’s information systems at undue risk. As network equipment runs 24/7/365, the 12-year period of use has taken a toll on the reliability and up time as the years move forward. Most switches and routers are experiencing failures on various ports and/or total failures of internal components on a regular basis. Staff struggles to source replacement components for the current equipment.
Why Cisco over the others?
-The continued use of Cisco products is crucial to the availability of the City’s information systems. Staff has become experts at the configuration, installation, upgrade, and emergency replacement of Cisco products over the last decade plus.
-Cisco has been the industry leader in network communications for over 30 years, they offer the greatest breadth of products and technical support in the business.
-Troubleshooting resources for the internal resolution of problems for Cisco products are second to none, online resources both free and contracted dwarf any of Cisco’s competitors. The professional support (phone, email, online knowledge bases, etc.) and personnel resources of the Cisco support department cannot be matched by any of the top network equipment contenders.
-Cost of ownership over the length of time the product will be deployed is less with Cisco due to longevity and supportability of the platform. A perfect example is the current Cisco equipment that the city has on the VIOP and switching side.
-Interoperability with current systems in place allowing for an orderly upgrade with limited downtime.
-Scalability and elasticity of the network over time. Meaning we have no idea what requirements will be placed on the network going forward. Cisco spends more R&D to produce the most elastic network to allow for things the City has not yet thought about it needs to support.
-Cisco ensures their customers are compliant with the latest PCI regulations coming into effect by providing enhanced encryption features on our phones
-Products should not be seen as individual items, but rather components of an end-to-end architecture designed and tested to work together. By purchase the Cisco architecture, this will reduce your staff’s time doing root cause analysis to identify and solve threats/issues.
Did we research the others?
Staff performed an exhaustive analysis of other manufacturers of network equipment. Manufacturers considered include Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Huawei among others. It was found that the other vendors paled in comparison to Cisco’s available resources. Many manufacturers offer adequate products in this marketplace for general business use. However, to ensure the highest level of reliability for emergency operations, public safety radio/computer systems, and City government needs, Cisco remains the only choice.
FISCAL IMPACT:
A lease-to-own purchase at 0% interest rate for 60 months is $561,134.96. The 1st year would be $5,833.33/month, which is already included in the 2018-2019 IT approved Budget. In years two (2) through five (5) the lease-to-own payment would be $10,231.98/month, which would be an additional $52,783 increase in each of those subsequent budget years.
ATTACHMENTS:
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