By Jim Bloch
The city of Port Huron will spend over $177,000 to upgrade its host servers and switches as well as the storage area network in its data center.
At its regular meeting Jan. 23, the city council voted unanimously to award the contract to replace the two host servers and switches to low-bidder SHI International Corp., of Somerset, NJ for $54,417. It turned out that SHI International was the sole bidder on the job to replace and upgrade the data center’s storage area network at $123,797.
“This was last upgraded in 2018,” said City Manager James Freed, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube, talking about the storage area network. “We’re at 85 percent capacity which means we’re running out of room. These run 24/7 so they need to be upgraded every five to six years. What’s nice about SHI is that the next round of upgrades we’ll be able to do for $60,000.”
Hypertec Solutions Partner, of Tempe, AZ) submitted the next lowest bid for the servers and switches at $59,043; Precision Data Products, of Grand Rapids, MI was next lowest at $ 66,255; CDW, of Vernon Hills, IL came in at $72,964; Charter Technologies, Inc., of Livonia, MI submitted the high bid at $80,136.
“The City of Port Huron is looking to upgrade the Data Center Host Server/Switch and the Storage Area Network (SAN),” explained Freed in his memo to Mayor Anita Ashford and the council. “The city put out a request for proposal with the intent of replacing the equipment with newer technology. The equipment that is contained in the RFP is based on industry standards and is being used in similar communities throughout Michigan. The equipment has been researched and found to meet the needs of the City of Port Huron. The upgrade consists of removing and replacing our host servers with new servers that have more capacity and data center switches to provide more bandwidth with the connection to the SAN. We will also be replacing our SAN with a new SAN with more capacity and newer technology. The host server/switch and SAN upgrade were both publicly advertised… Funding in the amount of $117,256.21 will be allocated using American Rescue Plan Act funds with the remaining $6,540.62 from the general fund.”
The city’s IT budget included both items.
The council voted 6-0 to approve each purchase. Council member Conrad Haremza was absent.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, MI. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
