Agenda item

Following on from the decision to close Riverpark House there was a subsequent need to relocate the Data Centre. The Council was taking advantage of this move to optimise the environment and to increase resilience.

Cllr Carlin noted that the aim was for the transfer to be completed as soon as possible, so that the closure of Riverpark House could proceed. She was also assured that the current and proposed structure would maintain Council resilience in the face of repeated cyber attacks on all public sector bodies.

RESOLVED

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services approved:

1. To approve, pursuant to Contract Standing Order 9.07.1 (d) (All contracts

valued at £500,000 or more at the time of award may only be awarded, assigned, or novated by the Cabinet), the award of a contract for supply, installation and configuration of a Disaggregated Hyperconverged Infrastructure Platform (dHCI Technology Platform) into two Council Data Centre locations to Supplier A, identified in Appendix 1 - Part B (exempt information) of this report, for 5 years for the tendered contract value of £1,327,567.16 (one million, three hundred and twenty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven pounds and sixteen pence) subject to the further details set out in section 3.1 of Appendix 1 - Part B (exempt information) of this report).

2. To approve, pursuant to Contract Standing Order 9.07.3, the issuance of a letter of intent for up to 10% of the tendered contract value, totalling £132,756 (one hundred and thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-six pounds).

Reasons for decision

The Data Centre Programme used the required location move as an opportunity

to fully review the current server and virtual infrastructure strategy and to

understand the growth of the server estate over the last 5-8 years. It became

clear there was an opportunity to modernise the infrastructure offering while

reducing the overall footprint, and so power usage, while supporting a key

programme objective to procure a solution that supports the short and longterm

strategic needs of the Council. The proposed contract enables the Council

to meet this objective by the delivery of the new dHCI Technology Platform into

the Council’s Data Centres.

The supplier recommended for award of the contract submitted a strong tender

that clearly demonstrates significant expertise and commitment to providing the

appropriate and relevant solution for the Council’s requirements. The supplier

ran profiling tools on the Council’s systems to understand the actual resources

including the virtual and physical infrastructure and was able to cost the solution

to reflect this. The supplier’s tendered costs aligned to the discovery phase

estimates.

The recommended supplier showed a strong understanding of the Council’s

requirements in its quality submission, demonstrating experience in similar

projects and clear processes to deliver successfully.

5. Alternative options considered

Do Nothing

This option, which would involve not awarding a contract to deliver the dHCI

Technology Platform and would leave end of life legacy equipment to be

relocated into data centres, is not recommended as any equipment failure

would cause significant outages for the Council. There is also the need to relocate the data centre in order to close Riverpark House.

Ad-Hoc Replacement of Hardware

As with the Do Nothing option, this approach could have been adopted.

However it would ultimately result in the Council using more rack space and

power in the data centres and ultimately the cost of the hardware over the

next two to three years would be the same as for procuring the new platform.