Westminster City Council
SUBJECT
Title
Purchase Order with Insight Public Sector, Inc. for Cisco Network Switching Equipment and Nutanix Storage Expansion.
End
From: Adolfo Ozaeta, Assistant City Manager
Requested by: Administration
Prepared by: Adolfo Ozaeta, Assistant City Manager
____________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Recommendation
Approve a Purchase Order with Insight Public Sector, Inc. for Cisco network switching equipment and Nutanix storage expansion in an amount not to exceed $259,250 and find that the proposed contract offers the best pricing.
end
BACKGROUND
The City of Westminster relies on its information technology infrastructure to support essential municipal operations, including City business applications, financial systems, public records, communications, public safety-related systems, and network connectivity for City facilities and staff. Reliable network switches and sufficient data-center storage capacity are foundational to maintain secure, continuous, and efficient City operations.
The City’s existing network switches are approximately 15 years old and have reached end of life. Network switches are the equipment that connect City facilities, workstations, servers, wireless access points, telephones, cameras, and other technology services to the City’s network. When equipment reaches end of life, the manufacturer may no longer provide security updates, firmware updates, replacement parts, or technical support. Continued use of unsupported equipment increases the risk of service interruptions, longer recovery times following a failure, and exposure to cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
The proposed purchase will replace 13 production network switches and provide one additional compatible switch to be maintained as a spare. The spare will allow the City to replace failed equipment more quickly during an emergency, thereby reducing potential downtime and disruption to City departments and public-facing services. The replacement switches include three-year Cisco licensing and support coverage and will provide a currently supported, more reliable platform for the City’s network infrastructure.
The City also operates a Nutanix virtualization environment that hosts its on-premises virtual servers. As the City decommissions its virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), server workloads that remained on VMware to support VDI will be migrated to Nutanix. This migration, combined with normal operational growth, requires additional Nutanix storage capacity.
The proposed Nutanix storage expansion consists of 16 enterprise solid-state drives and associated hardware support. This expansion will provide the capacity necessary to support the migration of additional virtual servers while maintaining appropriate capacity, performance, maintenance, backup, and recovery headroom. Maintaining adequate available storage capacity is a standard infrastructure practice that helps avoid performance degradation, supports reliable backup and recovery operations, and reduces the risk of emergency purchases caused by capacity constraints.
Consolidating additional server workloads into the Nutanix environment will reduce the City’s ongoing dependence on the existing VMware platform and associated hardware, licensing, and support costs. This approach supports the City’s long-term infrastructure modernization strategy by simplifying the technology environment, reducing duplicative platforms where operationally appropriate, and maintaining a supportable and resilient foundation for City services.
The proposed purchase includes replacement network switches, related licensing and stacking components, and additional Nutanix storage capacity. Equipment specifications, type, and quantity are seen in the summary table below:
|
Equipment |
Quantity |
Basic specifications |
Purpose |
|
Cisco Catalyst 9200L 48-port switches |
14 |
48 ports; managed; rack-mounted |
Replaces aging primary network switches. Thirteen will be deployed; one will be retained as a spare. |
|
Cisco Catalyst 9200L 24-port switch |
1 |
24 ports; managed; rack-mounted |
Supports a smaller City location or use case requiring fewer network connections. |
|
Cisco stacking kits and cables |
13 |
Connects compatible switches |
Allows switches to operate and be managed as a coordinated group. |
|
Cisco Network Essentials licensing |
15 |
Three-year term |
Provides required software licensing and supported management features. |
|
Nutanix NVMe solid-state drives |
16 |
7.68 TB per drive |
Adds capacity for City virtual servers and migration of workloads from VMware. |
|
Nutanix hardware support |
1 |
Support for storage upgrade |
Provides manufacturer support for the added storage components. |
The equipment will be shipped directly to the City. Installation and implementation will be performed by Infinity Technologies, the City’s contracted IT services provider, in coordination with Westminster IT staff.
The breakdown of cost is as follows:
|
Quote Item |
Price |
|
Cisco Catalyst 9200L network switches and three-year licensing |
$113,729.65 |
|
Cisco stacking modules and related components |
$10,405.46 |
|
Nutanix storage expansion, including support and tax |
$122,763.31 |
|
Quoted Total |
$246,898.42 |
|
Freight and final tax contingency |
$12,351.58 |
|
Not-to-exceed Authorization |
$259,250.00 |
Insight Public Sector, Inc. was awarded Cobb County, Georgia Contract No. 23-6692-03 through a competitive sealed solicitation process. Cobb County issued Competitive Solicitation RFP/Sealed Bid No. 23-6692 for Technology Product Solutions and Related Services on August 26, 2022. The solicitation required sealed proposals to be submitted by October 13, 2022, and specified a public bid/proposal opening that same day. Cobb County awarded contracts under the solicitation to multiple technology providers, including Insight Public Sector, Inc. This cooperative agreement is available to participating public agencies through OMNIA Partners; OMNIA Partners is the nation’s largest group purchasing organization and cooperative purchasing network.
The Information Technology Division reviewed the City’s current infrastructure needs and recommends the purchase of the proposed Cisco network switching equipment and Nutanix storage expansion from Insight Public Sector, Inc., through this cooperative purchasing agreement.
Per Section 3.44.080.G.5 of the Westminster Municipal Code, the City is authorized to enter into contracts where services, supplies, and equipment are procured through participation in a Federal General Services Administration (GSA) contract, California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS) contract, leveraged purchase agreement, or similar agreement or process utilizing a valid competitive bidding process. To utilize this “piggybacking”, the City Council should find “that the proposed contract offers the best pricing.” Additionally, Westminster Code section G.5 authorizes this purchase because it was procured pursuant to a competitively bid contract awarded by another city or public entity, in this case, Cobb County.
To confirm that the proposed purchase represents a good value for the City, Information Technology staff obtained and reviewed two additional quotes for the Cisco network-switching equipment and one additional quote for the Nutanix storage expansion. The additional Cisco and Nutanix quotes reflected higher quantities than the final proposed purchase. After reviewing the initial scope and available budget, staff reduced the quantities to the minimum needed to meet the City’s operational, resiliency, and storage-capacity requirements. The final scope included in the Insight quotation therefore reflects the City’s revised, cost-conscious requirements rather than the larger quantities reflected in the comparison quotes.
Staff contacted multiple vendors to obtain additional Nutanix storage quotations. Due to the proprietary nature of Nutanix hardware and the limited number of authorized suppliers able to quote the required components, only one additional Nutanix quote was obtained. Based on the competitive sealed solicitation conducted by Cobb County, the cooperative contract pricing, the additional vendor quotations received, and staff’s reduction of the scope to meet the City’s needs within budget, staff has determined that the proposed purchase from Insight Public Sector, Inc. provides the best value to the City.
FISCAL IMPACT
Funding for this purchase is available through the City’s ARPA Infrastructure Technology Grant (account no. 21500-212305-48000), in an amount not to exceed $259,250. The vendor quotations total $246,898.42, inclusive of the quoted equipment, licensing, hardware support, and applicable sales tax. The requested authorization includes a $12,351.58 contingency for any final freight, delivery, or tax adjustments not reflected in the vendor quotations. Any unused contingency amount will remain unspent.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney’s Office has reviewed as to form.
CONCLUSION
Replacement of the City’s end-of-life network switching equipment and expansion of Nutanix storage capacity are necessary to maintain reliable, secure, and supportable technology services. The proposed purchase will improve network resiliency, preserve access to vendor support and security updates, maintain spare equipment for faster recovery from a hardware failure, and provide the storage capacity required to migrate additional City server workloads into the Nutanix virtualization environment. Approval of the proposed purchase order with Insight Public Sector, Inc. will allow the City to modernize critical infrastructure, reduce operational risk, support the planned reduction in reliance on VMware infrastructure, and help manage future hardware, licensing, and support costs.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Insight Public Sector, Inc. - Cisco Network Switches and Licensing
2. Insight Public Sector, Inc. - Cisco Network Stacking Modules
3. Insight Public Sector, Inc. - Nutanix Storage Expansion
4. Crossconnect Engineering - Cisco Network Switches and Licensing
5. Crossconnect Engineering - Cisco Network Switches
6. Network Craze Technologies - Cisco Network Switches
7. Crossconnect Engineering - Nutanix Storage Expansion
REVIEWED BY
Erin Backs, Finance Director
City Attorney’s Office
Christine Cordon, City Manager