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Scott County staff seek approval for $748,001.99 server/storage replacement and three-year VMware subscription
Summary
County IT staff presented proposals to replace decade-old Hewlett Packard server and storage systems, add networking components, and buy a three-year VMware (Broadcom) subscription. The package would support 9-1-1 dispatch, ERP financial systems and a consolidated environment with Medic EMS and Scott Emergency Communications (SEC).
Scott County infrastructure manager Sam Samara asked the Board Committee of the Whole on June 3 to approve three related procurements to replace the county’s core on-site server and storage environment, purchase network switching, and buy a three‑year license subscription for the virtualization software that runs the county’s servers.
Samara said the existing Hewlett Packard equipment dates to 2015 (approaching 10 years in service) and that typical useful life is seven to eight years. After a market review that included IBM, Dell, Cisco, Pure Storage and others, the recommendation was to purchase Hewlett Packard Enterprise equipment on a direct-pricing scenario Samara said produced roughly a 60 percent discount compared with some state‑contracted pricing vehicles. Samara described a combined hardware total of roughly $748,001.99 (servers, storage and SAN) and said the proposed purchase includes five years of maintenance coverage.
"This November would be 10 years for the existing Hewlett Packard equipment that we have," Samara said. He added the new solution would expand on‑site capacity to roughly 200 terabytes to consolidate Scott County, Scott Emergency Communications (SEC) and Medic EMS under a single, redundant environment. Samara also noted SEC would contribute 20 percent toward the shared environment.
The networking components from Cisco were shown as a separate line item to tie the new HP equipment into the county network; the vendor for Cisco gear is a familiar local reseller. Samara said the county also needs a three‑year subscription to the Broadcom-owned VMware product to orchestrate virtual servers; he gave a three-year subscription cost with each year at $79,002.32.
Board members pressed staff to review certain contract provisions. One supervisor asked that County Attorney Christina review choice‑of‑law language that appeared to reference California jurisdiction in vendor boilerplate and also asked staff to confirm notice and operational-support obligations in the vendor agreement. "It's page 5, paragraph 13.8... we're still subject to the jurisdiction of California courts," the supervisor said, and asked Christina to seek exceptions or clarifications. Samara said staff would have legal staff review the agreements.
Why it matters: The systems support mission‑critical services including 9‑1‑1 dispatch and the county’s ERP financial system; procurement decisions affect redundancy, long‑term maintenance costs and software licensing models. The items were presented for board approval and discussion; several supervisors indicated comfort leaving the purchase on the consent agenda after staff and the county attorney review the contracts.
Ending: Staff will have the county attorney review vendor choice‑of‑law and notice provisions and return with final contract language for board action under the committee/consent agenda process.
