Decision details

The purpose of the report is to recommend the procurement of VMware licences for use on the corporate Storage Area Network.

The decision required is to approve the procurement through a selected supplier.

Purchase and provision of subscription-based virtualisation licences for Storage and Compute Hardware solution to allow for the consolidation of IT server storage infrastructure and Datacentres across NYC by 2026.

The current compute and data storage hardware and software are approaching the end of their serviceable life; maintenance and support expires for all products that make up the suite at the end of July 2024.

Other localities maintenance contracts are also expiring as follows:
• Scarborough is currently in extended support.
• Selby contract ends 1st July 2024
• Craven contract ends October 2024

Virtualization software and support required to run this infrastructure to provide IT services across the estate also expiries over the course of 2024, and in line with global trends the existing licence model has been replaced by a new subscription-based model which is unavoidable and inherently more expensive.

Replacement solution requires these specific licences and features to operate with hardware design.

With current usage it is anticipated that there will be budget shortfall of up to £250,000. Technology Services will be looking to resolve this shortfall in year through internal budget realignment and consolidation. We are also working in partnership with other local government organisations regional and nationally to reduce the cost pressure of subscription licence models in future years.

Alternative SAN Storage solutions considered as part of a previous procurement:

HPe, Nutanix, IBM

The vendors have withdrawn the existing perpetual licence model in favour of subscription licences and perpetual licences are no longer available for the lifetime of the new equipment.