To: Board of Supervisors
From: Marc Shorr, Information Technology Director
Report Title: Purchase Order with AT&T Corporation for Cisco Equipment
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Purchasing Agent, on behalf of the Chief Information Officer, to execute a purchase order, with AT&T Corporation in an amount not to exceed $275,000 for the purchase of Cisco networking equipment.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost for this purchase will be charged to user departments through the Department of Information Technology’s bill process. (100% User Departments)
BACKGROUND:
The Department of Information Technology is currently engaged in the process of procuring and deploying Cisco networking equipment, for the support of Audio-Visual (AV) services, at the new County building located at 1026 Escobar, Martinez. The new Cisco equipment will provide the necessary infrastructure and capabilities for streaming, conferencing, and delivering multimedia content across the County network, for the various departments which will be located at this site.
The Cisco networking equipment is designed to scale effortlessly to support growing demands for AV services, and their high-performance switches and routers ensure sufficient throughput and bandwidth to accommodate high-definition video streams and large-scale deployments. The County leverages the following features provided by Cisco to ensure all service and conferencing requirements meet County standards:
1. Quality of Service (QoS): Cisco devices offer sophisticated QoS features that prioritize AV traffic to ensure consistent and reliable delivery. QoS mechanisms prioritize audio and video packets over less time-sensitive data to minimize latency and packet loss, thereby enhancing the overall AV experience.
2. Multicast Support: Cisco switches and routers support multicast routing protocols such as Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) to efficiently distribute AV streams to multiple recipients simultaneously. This is crucial for applications like live streaming or video conferencing where the same content needs to be delivered to multiple recipients.
3. Unified Communications (UC) Solutions: Cisco offers UC solutions like Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) and Cisco Webex that integrate AV services with other communication channels such as voice, messaging, and presence. These solutions provide features like video conferencing, desktop sharing, and real-time collaboration over IP networks.
4. Video Conferencing Infrastructure: Cisco provides video conferencing solutions such as Cisco Telepresence, which rely on networking equipment to establish connections between endpoints, manage bandwidth allocation, and ensure optimal video and audio quality during conferences.
5. Content Delivery Networks (CDN): Cisco offers CDN solutions that optimize the delivery of multimedia content by caching frequently accessed content closer to end-users. This reduces latency and network congestion, resulting in smoother AV streaming experiences.
Beginning with the implementation of AV services at 1850 Muir (Sheriff, EOC) and 1025 Escobar (CAO), the Department of Information and Technology (DoIT) has prioritized the standardization and deployment of AV equipment and transport services. This standardization ensures uniform functionality across all AV conference rooms, office systems, and broadcast services, regardless of their location. Additionally, the DoIT Wide Area Network (WAN) team has standardized the use of Cisco networking equipment for all County enterprise services and Internet access. By deploying Cisco networking equipment to support AV services, the DoIT WAN team can effectively monitor and maintain the network infrastructure as a cohesive unit. AT&T was selected through a competitive solicitation process to provide Cisco equipment.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If this purchase is not approved, the departments moving into the new building will lack the necessary setup for utilizing AV services, consequently limiting their capacity to engage in remote and efficient communication with other County departments. Furthermore, deviating from the County's standardization strategy for AV, transport, enterprise, and internet services can lead to a myriad of challenges. These include interoperability issues, heightened complexity, increased costs, susceptibility to security vulnerabilities, constrained scalability, quality of service discrepancies, and integration hurdles. Such challenges ultimately impede the County's operational efficiency, agility, and innovative capabilities.