To: Board of Supervisors
From: Marc Shorr, Information Technology Director
Report Title: Contract with Nautilus Data Technologies, Inc.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Chief Information Officer, or designee, to execute a contract with Nautilus Data Technologies, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $65,900 to provide data center services to host the County’s Disaster Recovery Site for the period of September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2024.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost for this contract is comprised of a one-time setup fee of $6,200 and a recurring monthly fee of $4,975 for the use of the Nautilus data center. The cost of the agreement is included in the approved FY 23-34 Department of Information Technology budget. (100% General Fund)
BACKGROUND:
The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) maintains and operates the County’s primary data center providing critical services to the County that must be continuously available in the event of a natural disaster including earthquakes, fire, and floods. Currently, the County does not have a viable disaster recovery data center that could continue to provide these services should the primary data center no longer be available.
DoIT established several requirements for the County’s Disaster Recovery Data Center. It must have geographic separation from the primary data center located in Martinez, it must guarantee a minimum of 99.99% uptime and availability, DoIT staff must be able to access the facility 24x7 to maintain County equipment, and it must be monitored and secured on a 24x7 basis. Beginning in October 2022, DoIT conducted an analysis of several possible locations that could meet the County’s needs to serve as the County’s disaster recovery site. These included data centers operated by the State of California, three neighboring county governments that met the geographic separation requirements for disaster recovery, and referrals for commercial datacenter providers utilized by other governmental organizations. After reviewing each option including fixed and variable costs, requirements the County would have to meet, uptime guarantees, and access requirements, DoIT identified the data center owned and operated by Nautilus as the preferred option. This selection was made based on low fixed monthly cost, guaranteed 100% uptime, independent 24x7 access to the data center for DoIT staff, County can install its own data circuits and not be restricted to the provider’s vendors and their costs, and no extra charge for escorted access into the data center.
The Nautilus data center is built on a floating barge that is permanently docked at the Port of Stockton (Port), in San Joaquin County. This provides the Nautilus data center with unique capabilities to withstand natural disasters including earthquakes, fire, and floods, that traditional land-based data centers cannot easily provide. Nautilus will provide the County with the necessary space, electrical power, cooling, and security for the equipment the County will install for disaster recovery purposes. There is no labor required for this project. DoIT staff will perform all necessary tasks required for the installation of equipment.
This data center is classified as a Tier 4 data center that has no single point of failure that will provide the County with a data center that is guaranteed to have 100% uptime and availability, exceeding the County’s requirement of 99.99% uptime. Additionally, the data center is monitored and secured by Federal Port Police on a 24x7 basis and DoIT staff will have 24x7 access to the data center to maintain County equipment. Current government customers that utilize this data center include San Joaquin County and the United States Department of State.
This agreement has a mutual indemnification provision which provides that each party will defend and indemnify the other for injuries or losses arising out of the performance of the agreement.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If this agreement is not approved, the County will need to seek out other traditional data center providers that will be hard pressed to provide a cost-effective solution that provides the level of capabilities and resiliency the County requires.
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I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. |
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ATTESTED: |
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Monica Nino, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors |
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By: |