COUNCIL COMMUNICATION
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council
FROM: Jonathan Baskette, Information Technology Manager
SUBJECT:Title
Approve Master Service Agreement with Level 3 Communications to provide Voice and Data Communications for City Operations
Body
FUNDING SOURCE:
Various Departments
PURPOSE:
Authorize an agreement with Level 3 Communications to provide voice, internet, and IT related services to the City in accordance with City Code Section 3.10.010.5.A.17.
BACKGROUND:
Over the past several years, the City has increased its reliance on and use of technology. All departments have incorporated new technologies and become more dependent on reliable internet connectivity in order to change the way business is conducted. To support this growth, and stabilize and expand services, three technology areas need to be addressed: 1) Security, 2) Disaster Recovery, and 3) Bandwidth for voice and data communications.
Security continues to be a priority for all organizations as the threat from ransomware and other digital attacks continues to grow and mutate. The next level of security for the City is services provided by ISP (Internet Service Providers) that verify legitimate incoming data and scrub infected data prior to reaching the City network.
The City’s server infrastructure and majority of the City’s data is physically stored within the City limits. As such, there is no emergency failover in the event of a large scale emergency. The City has an extensive backup system, but in the event hardware is lost, there is no quick way to recover. A cloud connection, in which the City can use an offsite location to store its backed up data, will provide secondary backup in the event of a local disaster. More internet bandwidth is needed to provide this level of redundancy.
The City continues to expand the use of Wi-Fi and other internet based services. As a result, currently available internet bandwidth is maxed out. IT recommends increasing available bandwidth and consolidation of voice services (phone) to internet-based voice providers. This will allow the City to continue to expand its Wi-Fi, continue automating services and reduce the cost of the City’s voice services.
Level 3 Communications is one of the largest voice and data providers in the world. They have the world’s largest network and provide an array of services. Over the last year and a half, the City has been seeking a solution that meets the City’s future Wi-Fi needs at a reasonable cost. Level 3 has presented the City a cost effective proposal that increases security, provides a dedicated private cloud connection to Microsoft AZURE (Offsite Data Recovery), and substantially increases available bandwidth to accommodate future growth.
The proposed Level 3 services include:
• Two, 1-gig internet connections. The City currently has a 50 megabyte internet connection. A gig is equal to 1,000 megabytes. The two, 1-gig connections are equal to 2,000 megabytes, an increase of forty (40) times.
• DDOS Mitigation for all incoming internet traffic. This service scans all internet traffic prior to reaching the network and quarantine possible threats.
• 1-gig secured private connection to Microsoft AZURE cloud services to support data backup and disaster recovery.
• Voice complete package - Allows the City to convert all analog phone lines to digital and includes 50,000 prepaid long distance minutes.
COMMUNITY IMPACT:
Adding these services will allow the City to continue improving services to citizens through more automation and simplified processes. It will also allow the City’s public Wi-Fi services to expand.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The services provided by Level 3 will replace phone, long distance and internet services currently provided by other vendors at an average cost of $14,100 per month. Level 3 will provide the additional DDOS Mitigation, the dedicated cloud contention and 40 times our current internet capacity for $15,904 per month or approximately $1,804 more a month, or $21,648 more a year.
For fiscal year 2017-18 $80,000 has been budgeted in account 110-1620-401.5273 to cover the difference in monthly costs as well as the overlapping charges while services are transitioned from one provider to another.
ATTACHMENTS:
Level 3 Master Services Agreement
SUGGESTED MOTION:Recommended Action
I move to approve the Master Service Agreement between Lake Havasu City and Level 3 Communications.