CC MEETING: March 4, 2025
DATE: February 10, 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 Freeit Data Solutions, Through Texas DIR Purchasing Cooperative, For The Purchase Of Network Hardware In An Amount Not To Exceed $1,650,000.
Body
BACKGROUND:
The City of Carrollton has established a regular refresh cycle of network infrastructure hardware to maintain performance, security, and scalability. Older network 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. As we are moving to a fiber-based network over the coming year with the rollout of our City-Wide Fiber Project, we will also need hardware that can support the increased throughput available to us in order to prevent bottlenecks and bandwidth limitations. 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 IT Department shopped the cooperative agreements to source the best pricing for network hardware, additionally requesting multiple quotes from multiple vendors including two HUB vendors to comply with purchasing law and City policies. The best price and value were provided by Freeit Data Solutions.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The funds for the purchase of network hardware is budgeted in the following Information Technology capital account:
ACCTG UNIT ACTIVITY BUDGET AMOUNT
854105 106600199 $1,650,000.00
A 10% contingency is built into the request due to the vulnerable nature of resources in the IT market.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION/ACTION DESIRED:
Staff recommends Council authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Freeit Data Solutions for the purchase of network hardware in an amount not to exceed $1,650,000.00.