The greatest risk identified for a new enterprise backup and disaster recovery project for Auckland City Council isn’t “supplier fails to deliver services required”, or “cost of project exceeds first estimates”.
Rather, of five risk factors listed in tender documents, “ATA declines request for funding” is noted as the biggest threat to the project.
However, the documents say that the threat can be mitigated by presenting a strong business case: “High risk managed by ensuring that the business case to ATA is sound” is the recommended response.
The role of the Auckland Transition Agency, which is overseeing the transition from separate councils to one Supercity in Auckland, is mentioned elsewhere in the documents, where potential suppliers are warned: “Please note that Auckland City Council may require confirmation from the Auckland Transition Authority pursuant to the Local Government (Tamaki Makarau Reorganisation) Act 2009 before entering into any contract relating to or resulting from this RFP”.
Even without the role of the ATA, it would be a big project.
“Historically, Auckland City Council has invested in technology to back up and recover systems and data as required on a project-by-project basis," the tender says.
“This has served the needs whilst the infrastructure was relatively small, but the infrastructure has now grown to a point that the systems are fragmented and somewhat difficult to manage.”
A single, enterprise-wide solution has been identified as the answer, either an upgraded version of current arrangements or an implementation of CommVault’s Simpana product.
The aim of the current RFP, issued on January 15, is to investigate both options and to appoint a reseller.
“The aim of Auckland City Council in this Request for Proposal process is to investigate the CommVault option as an alternative to the current solution and, subject to evaluation of both options, to then select and appoint a tier one authorised reseller,” the tender says.
Elsewhere the documents, states that it is expected the council would enter into a software licence agreement with CommVault directly for the software.
“The council intends to use its Independent Supplier Agreement to cover the work required to complete the detailed design and implementation.”
Among the requirements for the new system are to reduce time spent completing backup and recovery tasks and changing tapes.
“Approximately 50 hours per week are spent completing tasks related to backups, restores and changing tapes. This needs to be reduced to 10 hours per week,” the tender says.
It is also noted that “functionality and performance of the current systems is inadequate”, and “the current disparate systems severely restrict flexibility and manageability of backup and recovery tasks”.
Submissions close on January 29 and the contract will commence in February.