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Committee forwards $246,000 server-cluster replacement to consent agenda
Summary
City IT staff told the committee the existing 2015–2016 servers that host roughly 100 virtual machines need replacement; staff proposed an Azure Local hyperconverged solution not to exceed $246,000 and asked the committee to forward the item to the April 1 consent agenda.
Federal Way IT staff presented a proposal to replace the city’s aging server cluster, telling the committee the physical servers purchased in 2015–2016 now host about 100 virtual machines that are central to the city’s network and services. Thomas, the presenter, said the recommended solution is Azure Local (formerly Azure Stack HCI) supplied through an OMNIA contract and a reseller. He described the benefit as consolidating six aging physical servers to three newer hyperconverged nodes and reducing license exposure to third‑party vendor fee increases.
The item matters because the servers underpin city infrastructure — from internet connectivity to user access control — and staff described the current gear as nine to ten years old and at the end of its normal service life. Thomas told the committee the replacement would increase resilience (clustered nodes that maintain service if one node fails) and avoid new licensing costs tied to alternatives. The total authorization requested was “not to exceed $246,000,” which included a 10% contingency above the packet quote to cover trade and tariff variability.
Committee members asked technical and procurement questions, including whether the city was already using Hyper‑V (Thomas said yes), how existing software would be hosted (Amanda and LaserFiche on‑prem; several other systems in the cloud or hosted by the state), and what would happen to the old hardware. Thomas said surplus and e‑recycling would be used for decommissioned equipment and that the city may retain existing HP Nimble storage (about 92 TB usable) for non‑high‑availability uses until its vendor support ends around 2029. He also confirmed sales tax appeared separately on the vendor (Zones) quote and that Zones is the vendor of record on the OMNIA contract.
The committee moved the item to the April 1, 2025 consent agenda for council approval. The staff recommendation, equipment description, contingency, and the use of an OMNIA purchasing contract were included in the packet materials provided to the committee.
The council will review the consent agenda item on April 1, where the final cost, vendor, and contract language will be included for formal approval.
