CC MEETING: March 25, 2025
DATE: March 11, 2025
TO: Erin Rinehart, City Manager
FROM: Chris Chiancone, Chief Information Officer
Chrystal Davis, Assistant City Manager
Title
Consider Authorizing The City Manager To Enter Into An Agreement With Solid Border, Inc., Through Texas DIR Purchasing Cooperative, For The Purchase Of Palo Alto Firewalls In An Amount Not To Exceed $550,000.00.
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BACKGROUND:
The City of Carrollton has established a regular refresh cycle of infrastructure hardware to maintain performance, security, and scalability. Older equipment may no longer receive firmware or software updates, leaving it vulnerable to cyberattacks. Compliance with regulatory standards such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), and Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) require up-to-date security measures and patched hardware. The Information Technology Department's Strategic Business Plan also lays out modernization and adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and other network related goals. The City's firewalls are approaching the end of their useful life and are due for a refresh. This refresh includes five (5) years of all necessary licensing and support.
The IT Department shopped the cooperative agreements to source the best pricing for firewall hardware, additionally requesting multiple quotes from multiple vendors including two HUB vendors in order to comply with purchasing law and City policies. The best price and value was received from Solid Border, Inc., a registered HUB vendor.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The funds for these refresh items are budgeted in the following Information Technology capital account:
ACCTG UNIT ACTIVITY BUDGET AMOUNT
854105 106600199 $550,000.00
A 10% con...
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