TO: Honorable Mayor & Members of the North Port Commission
FROM: A. Jerome Fletcher II, ICMA-CM, MPA, City Manager
TITLE: Approve Technology Services Agreement Between Sarasota County and the City of North Port for the County's Continued Provision of Hosting Services for the City of North Port Servers and Network Equipment for the Term of Twelve Months in an Amount Not to Exceed $20,980.80.
Recommended Action
Option 1: Approve Technology Services Agreement Between Sarasota County and the City of North Port for the County's Continued Provision of Hosting Services for the City of North Port Servers and Network Equipment for the term of twelve months in an amount not to exceed $20,980.80.
City Commission Options
Option 1: Approve Technology Services Agreement Between Sarasota County and the City of North Port for the County's Continued Provision of Hosting Services for the City of North Port Servers and Network Equipment for the term of twelve months in an amount not to exceed $20,980.80.
• Pros: Provides continued access to technology services and support through Sarasota County’s disaster recovery (DR) facility, ensuring reliability; cost efficiency; and continuity within the County’s DR facility. The City has been utilizing Sarasota County’s DR facility since 2015. Furthermore, Sarasota County is moving to a brand-new Category 5 Hurricane-rated facility in December 2025 providing a more hardened, secure environment.
• Cons: Commits the City to contractual obligations and associated costs for the duration of the Agreement.
Option 2: Move the City’s data center to the cloud at an estimated monthly cost of $30,805.73.
• Pros: Reduces reliance on physical hardware infrastructure.
• Cons: Substantially more expensive than the current agreement; would require significant time and resources to migrate existing systems; eliminates the benefit of being located in Sarasota County’s DR facility; and increases risk in the event of an outage. These costs only account for servers; applications; and storage; additional expenses for network bandwidth; software licensing; and staff training would further increase monthly costs.
Option 3: Deny Technology Services Agreement Between Sarasota County and the City of North Port for the County's Continued Provision of Hosting Services for the City of North Port Servers and Network Equipment for the term of twelve months in an amount not to exceed $20,980.80.
• Pros: Reduces reliance on physical hardware infrastructure.
• Cons: The City would not have a disaster recovery site or plan for critical services and applications; increasing operational risk and potential downtime in the event of an outage.
Background Information
The City has relied on Sarasota County’s DR facility since 2015 to host critical systems and applications, ensuring continuity of services in the event of an outage or disaster. The existing arrangement provides cost-effective access to technology services and support while maintaining high reliability and operational security. The monthly cost for utilizing Sarasota County’s DR facility is $1,748.40.
Sarasota County’s Information Technology Department provides data center hosting services to regional partners. The advantage of continuing this Agreement with Sarasota County is two-fold. First, the cost is much less than going with a cloud provider, and secondly, the City already has an existing fiber connection from City Hall to Sarasota County’s Data Center network.
Sarasota County is scheduled to move to a brand-new Category 5 Hurricane-rated facility in December 2025 providing a more hardened and secure environment, further enhancing the City’s disaster recovery capabilities. Planning for disaster recovery is very important to ensure continuity of operations for City services. With the approval of the Technology Service Agreement, the City of North Port will have the ability to continue disaster recovery services.
An alternative approach to moving the City’s data center to the cloud has been explored; however, this option would result in significantly higher monthly costs ($30,805.73). These costs only account for the servers, applications, and storage required to run the City’s systems. Additional costs such as network bandwidth, software licensing, and staff training would further increase monthly expenses and complexity, making this option far less practical.
Approval of the Sarasota County Technology Service Agreement will allow the City to continue leveraging a proven, secure, and cost-effective disaster recovery solution while avoiding operational risks associated with downtime or lack of a backup facility.
This Agreement provides for a twelve-months, not to exceed $20,980.80 and covers Fiscal Year 2025-2026.
The Technology Services Agreement Between Sarasota County and the City of North Port for the County's Continued Provision of Hosting Services for the City of North Port Servers and Network Equipment for the term of twelve months has been reviewed by the City Attorney and is legally correct as to form.
The Technology Service Agreement will be provided to the City Clerk’s Office prior to the City Commission meeting date, for signature, subject to City Commission approval.
Attachments: Exempt from public record pursuant to Florida Statutes Section 119.0725.
Strategic Plan Pillar
Good Governance
Financial Impact
The total cost of this Agreement is not to exceed $20,980.80 and has been included in the adopted City Manager, Information Technology Division budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 under account number 001-0710-516.54-00 and will be paid monthly in the amount of $1,748.40.
Procurement
This purchase is exempt from competition per Sec. 2-403 (a) (2) of the Procurement Code as it is a procurement contract between the City and another government. The appropriate form has been included via attachment.
Attachments:
1. Sarasota County Technology Services Agreement
2. Sarasota County DR Competitive Exemption Form
Prepared by: Vicki Edwards, Senior Business Administrator
Eric Ryan, Information Technology Manager
Department Director: Juliana B. Bellia, Assistant City Manager