ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: July 13, 1998

CC File No. 1151

TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM: Director, Information Technology

SUBJECT: Information Technology Infrastructure (1998) Interim Request for Funds

RECOMMENDATION

A.THAT Council approve the Information Technology Infrastructure (1998) Interim Request for Funds consisting of:

1.Installation of Electrical Power Backup in the Computer Operations Centre, at a cost of $40,000;

2.Acquisition of Enterprise Tape Backup, at a cost of $80,000;

with funding for the total estimated capital cost of $120,000 to be provided from the Technology Infrastructure Replacement financing plan.

Additional annual costs will be covered through existing operating budgets.

B.THAT Council approve negotiation of a 3-year acquisition, service and support contract with IBM, the projected capital cost of $332,000 to be financed over 3 years from the Capital Financing Fund, to replace the City’s mainframe computer with a new model. Costs will be offset by other savings so that there will be no impact on the operating budget.

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Corporate Services RECOMMENDS approval of A and B.

COUNCIL POLICY

On December 8, 1994, Council, while considering the "Next Steps to Better City Government" reports, which included the Information Systems Plan Report, directed:

-THAT staff prepare a detailed infrastructure and software implementation plan and budget for consideration in the 1997 - 1999 Capital Budget.

On July 23, 1996, Council approved a "Long Term Financing Strategy -Information Technology Replacement Program", that recommended, amongst other things:

-THAT Council approve the financing strategy as outlined in this report to provide a sustaining source of funds for information technology and renewal.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to seek approval for specific information technology investments to continue the build-out and replacement of the City’s information technology, communications and systems infrastructure.

This is an interim financing request to secure funding for these specific items. A further request for the balance of infrastructure funding, to cover such items as microcomputer replacements, network upgrades and e-mail, will follow in early fall, 1998.

This request includes:

·410·Replacement of an aging IBM mainframe with current technology, which offers improved reliability, space and power savings, and better network connectivity, at current costs;·410

·410·Power protection for the main computing complex; and·410

·410·Enterprise tape backup that will help to protect against service disruptions and data loss.·410

DISCUSSION

As infrastructure components become technologically obsolete, they must be replaced. As usage grows, and existing capacity is no longer adequate, equipment must be upgraded. As new needs are identified, the infrastructure must be expanded to accommodate them.

The three items described briefly in the following table are one-time infrastructure upgrades. Capital costs and ongoing operational costs are also identified.

Projected Projected

Sub-Program Description Capital Cost*Annual Cost

Electrical Power Backup	Ensure continuous operation of City systems and networks in the event of loss of electrical power;	$40,000	$5,000
Enterprise Tape Backup	Protect City electronic data assets through acquisition of an automated tape library to ensure fast and reliable enterprise data back-up and restore;	$80,000	$15,000
Replace IBM Mainframe	Replace obsolete IBM mainframe and disk subsystems with current technology.	Costs will be contained within existing 3-year operating budget.
	TOTAL	$120,000	$20,000

* Capital costs include acquisition, implementation and staff training.

More detailed descriptions of each of these items are contained in Appendix A.

Each of these sub-programs either reduces the risk of failure of City electronic information systems or facilitates their recovery, avoiding both staff costs and potential inconvenience to the public.

Work is in progress to update the current mainframe operating system, which is not Year 2000 compliant, to a version that is. This is a necessary pre-requisite to replacement of the mainframe hardware. Should the upgrade result in reduced performance, a more powerful machine may be required, and we will report back to Council on the additional cost and source of funds.

CONCLUSION

The City is looking to replace or significantly upgrade a number of its core information technology components. This request will provide for robust, dependable and fast components that will be needed to support the growing information technology investment of the City.

This report describes a request for key information technology components of the infrastructure. The request is being made so that these items can proceed while the balance of this year’s infrastructure request is being finalized. A further request will be submitted to Council early in the fall to complete this year’s infrastructure program requests.

Appendix A - 1998 Technology Infrastructure Upgrade Program Details

Electrical Power Backup

Information Technology has looked in the past at the possibility of un-interruptible power for the central operations room, but the power demands of the mainframe made this cost-prohibitive. That situation has changed, almost entirely due to the decreased power requirements of the newer technologies, and Building Services advises that there is sufficient spare capacity in the standby generator to run all the equipment in this area (with the exception of the current mainframe - see "Replace IBM Mainframe" recommendation). An un-interruptible power supply (UPS) will still be required to maintain power for a few minutes until the generator can kick in, but it can be of lower capacity than would be required in the absence of the motor generator. Benefits are:

·410·The systems can be kept running, and staff can continue to serve the public in the event of a power loss (a goal identified by Community Services);·410

·410·Local loss of power will not impact the provision of information services at remote locations;·410

·410·Un-interruptible power minimizes the risk of database corruption or data loss in the event of a sudden power outage.·410

Total cost (including electrical rewiring, UPS): $70,000

Funding from Core Systems (SAP) project allocated to UPS ($30,000)

______

One-time funding requested: $40,000

Annual operating costs:

Periodic replacement of UPS batteries (est.) $5,000

Staffing implications: None

Appendix A - 1998 Technology Infrastructure Upgrade Program Details

Enterprise Tape Backup

By year-end 1998, the City is projected to have over 700GB (1GB = 1 billion characters) of data stored across more than 50 file and database servers. This total does not include Police or VPL, who manage their data storage independently.

To protect against either inadvertent or catastrophic destruction, these data stores are all backed up to magnetic tape, and in many cases a copy is stored off-site. However, with the exception of the mainframe, the individual tape systems used are prone to failure, lack robustness, and demand significant manual and technical intervention. Consistent storage management policies have not been implemented beyond the mainframe. If data were lost and the tape backup systems failed, recovery from paper documents could be very costly and might not be possible. At best this would impact customer service. At worst there could be legal liability issues. An enterprise-quality tape backup and storage management system is needed.

IBM’s successful proposal for the core systems’ replacement included such a system, consisting of an output/print server and an automated tape library. At the same time, some funding was allocated in the 1998 Information Technology operating budget for acquisition of a more robust and higher-capacity tape backup system to address the concerns described above for the centrally-administered data.

These requirements (projected out several years) and the funding available have been combined, and a system configured which will provide up to 4 TB (1 TB= 1,000 GB) of reliable, high-speed data backup for:

·410·the new financial and human resource systems;·410

·410·all file and database servers located within the 12th and Cambie complex, and, as a later phase,·410

·410·Remote file and database servers (dependent on wide area network capacities and subject to testing).·410

Total cost of tape library and output/print server: $255,000

(inc. hardware, software, & implementation services)

Funding from Core Systems (SAP) project allocated to backup services: ($150,000)

Funding allocated in 1998 IT operating budget ($25,000)

________

One-time funding requested: $80,000

Annual operating costs:

Hardware maintenance : $15,000

Staffing implications: no increase

Appendix A - 1998 Technology Infrastructure Upgrade Program Details

Replace IBM Mainframe

Many of the City’s core information systems still run on the IBM mainframe. While the financial and human resource systems should be replaced by mid-1999, the permits and license system, revenue systems (property tax, by-law fines, water-metering and scavenging billing systems, etc.) and a number of smaller systems still depend on the mainframe, which we expect to be an integral part of the City’s computing infrastructure through 2001.

The current mainframe is 6 years old. Some of its disk subsystems are as much as 13 years old. Replacing it with a slightly smaller (in rated throughput) current-technology model is recommended. This offers the following benefits:

·410·Cost neutrality. The $332,000 cost of the new hardware is offset by reduced software licensing costs, maintenance, and power consumption;·410

·410·Improved reliability. While the current processor is quite reliable, some of the old disk sub-systems are less reliable, and have recently failed, resulting in recovery costs and service interruptions;·410

·410·Space savings. The new mainframe will be physically smaller, and contains the disk sub-systems that now occupy most of one room. This space is needed for the new financial and human resource systems hardware;·410

·410·Power savings. Savings of around $60,000 in power and cooling costs are anticipated over the 3-year period. In addition, the reduced power consumption permits the mainframe, along with other central computing equipment, to be supported on the standby generator described earlier in this report;·410

·410·Connectivity to the network. The new hardware permits connectivity simply to the network. This provides a needed mechanism for exchanging data between the mainframe and the new core (SAP) systems. ·410

Increased memory and disk speeds should compensate for the lower processor rating, so close-to-equivalent performance is expected.

Work is in progress to update the current mainframe operating system, which is not Year 2000 compliant, to a version that is. This is a necessary pre-requisite to replacement of the mainframe hardware. Should the upgrade introduce a performance penalty, a more powerful machine may be necessitated. It is anticipated that it will still be more cost-effective to upgrade the hardware to new technology than to upgrade the existing hardware.

Council’s approval is needed to enter into a contract with IBM to supply a new mainframe and maintenance and support services over a 3-year period. This will replace existing agreements currently renewed annually.

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver