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The Aransas County commissioners court approved an agreement with Reliant Data, LLC to implement a reliable disaster recovery and backup solutions for the county.
The action was taken at a regular term meeting Monday, June 24.
According to documentation provided to the court, the objective of the agreement is to provide the following:
• A solution that will backup files, folders and machines.
• A solution that facilitates the restoration process of files, folders and machines.
• A solution that offers customers the ability to perform bare metal restorations in the event of complete hardware failure.
• A customer with a solution that leverages “cloud-based” backups to facilitate a remote operations center if needed during a disaster scenario.
• The customer with the assurance that its data is protected, backed up, available, and ultimately, accessible when needed.
Their solution is to identify all systems which should be included in a backup/disaster recovery system (BDR), install and configure Dell AppAssure (locally) to facilitate the BDR process, configure the AppAssure (remote) to receive system replications, configure Reliant Data’s NOC (network operations center) to convert backups to production servers in the event of failover, and configure network failover to Reliant Data’s NOC during a disaster scenario.
The installation fee, which includes training, totals $12,500. Implementation is anticipated to be completed by December, after which the service cost per month is $3,850.
Information technology network security analyst/senior technician Collin Jackson explained if the courthouse and Public Safety were lost to a disaster, the county would lose its data.
Commissioners questioned the information being backed up by Tyler Technologies, a contract which was approved by the court in 2010.
Jackson explained Tyler Technologies backs up information from the courts and justice areas.
When asked about not having the system ready until December, Jackson explained they proposed putting the cost in the budget for 2014, thus they delayed the timing.
After some discussion, the commissioners asked Reliant Data representatives Tim Meador and Chris Garis if they could back up the data in a shorter time period than six months.
Garis reiterated they pushed the data back due to budgeting proposes. They agreed it could be completed in 60 days after the court approves the agreement.
After more discussion, Commissioner Charles Smith made a motion to go forward with the contract, to have the backup completed no later than Sept. 1. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Jack Chaney and carried unanimously.
The question was raised regarding the county’s need to go out for bid for “professional services.”
County attorney Richard Bianchi researched the matter and sent an email explaining, “This contract falls under the definition of ‘high-technology’ and also does not meet the $50,000 threshold for competitive bid requirements.
“{IT director} Justin {Cook} has advised me that the monthly service fee is not an annual contract but is a month-to-month agreement. Thus, the purchase process can proceed as voted on in Commissioners’ Court.”