Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Information Systems

TO:	David Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	James Wisdom, Director of Information Systems
CC:	Alan Landis, Purchasing Specialist John Williams, Network Manager Mike Lawless, Assistant Utilities Director Dave King, Utilities Maintenance Manager
DATE:	March 17, 2010
RE:	Network Core Switch Replacement

I. Current Network Core Switch   The current core switch used for the City’s network was installed in 2003 and was the key component funded by the Utilities Department in connecting the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant and Kaw Water Treatment Plant to the City of Lawrence’s computer network when their fiber was installed.  The core switch provides critical network connectivity that involves connecting all 47 City buildings and users located throughout the City.

II. Switch Replacement   The City has begun a planned equipment replacement schedule, replacing critical network hardware on a seven (7) year basis, and the Utilities Department scheduled replacement of their equipment in their CIP and departmental budget.  The City’s Network Manager, John Williams, attended this year’s Cisco Live conference and spent time going over our network configuration with their experts, and later refined their proposal with Cisco networking experts in a whiteboard session.  The planned equipment replacement included moving to Cisco’s new Nexus switch infrastructure, which is based on 10GB connectivity speed, versus the current 1GB backbone technology.  The City worked with Vital Support Systems, a vendor on the State of Kansas’ Cisco State Contract, to refine the quote to include all necessary network connector modules and cables.  Replacing this equipment will also greatly improve the backups and other disaster prevention functions currently being performed with the increased connectivity to 10GB.  Replacing this equipment in with Power Over Ethernet (POE) switches will prepare these two locations for the VoIP phone system that is planned in the near future.  The design also includes 10GB network cards for the City Hall VMWare servers that will provide better performance for the new ERP software.  The quote includes trading in the existing core switch and training credits for staff to receive a week of training to manage the switch. 

III. Project Funding   The Utilities Department scheduled replacing the switch equipment located at City Hall in their 2010 Utilities CIP budget and will fund $117,605.84 from the CIP budget and $23,190.40 from the Wastewater 2010 departmental budget to update the equipment at the Wastewater Plant.

IV. Action Requests   Information Systems is recommending that the City of Lawrence approve a purchase order to Vital Support Systems in the amount of $140,796.24.