REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
March 25, 2025
FROM
LYNN FYHRLUND, Chief Information Officer, Innovation and Technology Department
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment to Agreement with NetBrain Technologies, Inc. for Network Monitoring and Management System
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. 24-1023 with NetBrain Technologies, Inc., updating the product offerings for a network monitoring and management system, increasing the total contract amount for the first five years by $445,500, from $1,160,550 to $1,606,050, and revising the five year term to March 25, 2025, through March 24, 2030, automatically renewing for five-year terms thereafter, unless notice of non-renewal is provided by either party.
(Presenter: Lynn Fyhrlund, Chief Information Officer, 388-5501)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this item will not result in the use of Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). The Innovation and Technology Department (ITD) operating costs are recovered via service rates approved annually by the Board of Supervisors (Board). Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. 24-1023 (Order Form No. 54231) is for an updated product offering for a network monitoring and management system. The contract amount with NetBrain Technologies, Inc. (NetBrain) is $1,606,050, for the first five-year subscription period beginning March 25, 2025, through March 24, 2030. Of the $445,500 increase, the first year of costs applicable to 2024-25 are increasing by $89,100, from $247,950 to $337,050. Sufficient appropriation is included in ITD’s Computer Operations 2024-25 budget and will be included in future recommended budgets. If the agreement is renewed for a new five-year period, ITD will return to the Board to request additional funding at that time.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
ITD manages the County’s enterprise information technology network environment that requires constant monitoring and proactive management to enhance network reliability, minimize downtime, and safeguard against potential cybersecurity attacks. NetBrain provides a network automation software for network monitoring, outage prevention, trouble resolution, real-time network visibility, network mapping and automation. Use of NetBrain will enable the County to instantly create on-demand dynamic maps using live data through three key automation features: network mapping automation, network troubleshooting automation, and network changes automation. These features will enable automatic network discovery, diagnostics and streamlined changes by analyzing benchmark data and automating network modifications within a well-defined workflow that is accompanied with detailed impact analysis reports.
Network monitoring and mapping automation allows for a continuous assessment of the County’s network and security health by using real-time data provided by the County’s network to create on-demand dynamic maps and reports that will provide current performance status and security threat notification affecting the County’s Information Technology network and infrastructure. Network troubleshooting automation will assist ITD with diagnosis and troubleshooting network issues by analyzing benchmark data to determine the most appropriate resolution to effectively and efficiently resolve network performance issues. Finally, network change automation will allow ITD to automate a network change in a leveraged workflow and provide detailed impact analysis and reporting capabilities that will assist ITD in optimizing and securing the County’s network through the change process.
On October 22, 2024 (Item No. 24), the Board approved non-financial Subscription End User License Agreement No. 24-1022, including non-standard terms, with NetBrain, for a network monitoring and management system, effective October 22, 2024, through October 21, 2029, automatically renewing for additional five-year periods, unless either party provides notice of non-renewal. The Board also approved Agreement No. 24-1023 (NetBrain Order Form No. 51814) with NetBrain for a network monitoring and management system, for the total contract amount of $1,160,550, for the period beginning October 22, 2024, through October 21, 2029, automatically renewing for five-year terms thereafter, unless notice of non-renewal is provided by either party.
Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. 24-1023 revises the term to March 25, 2025, through March 24, 2030, and updates the existing quoted product with a new and improved version. NetBrain has enhanced their product by adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Change Management features that would benefit network operations and provide enhanced network reliability for the County’s network. The updated product bundle offers a comprehensive network monitoring solution that supports a wide range of devices and comes with extra benefits and improvements compared to the original version. The additional features, such as the change management integration, will enhance ITD’s current network operations and provide long-term value through improved automation, reduced manual effort, and enhanced network reliability. Change management integration will provide improved capabilities for managing, tracking, and auditing network changes; configuration rollback features for enhanced functionality for quick and efficient restoration of previous configurations; reducing downtime in case of errors; and AI Integration for advanced analytics and proactive issue identification powered by AI, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and incident resolution times.
ITD recommends approval of Amendment No. 1 to Agreement No. 24-1023 to allow ITD to leverage NetBrain technology’s updated features and align with the vendor's current portfolio, to enhance network management and security for the County. ITD will return to the Board for approval for the amounts to renew the contract at every five-year term renewal.
PROCUREMENT
ITD had completed a comparative analysis of available network monitoring solutions provided by various vendors based on ITD’s requirements of providing network troubleshooting, change management, and network mapping and assessment tools. NetBrain best meets ITD’s and the County’s functional requirements for a network monitoring solution by providing real-time dynamic network mapping and visualization tools, advanced root cause analysis, and extensive and advanced automation features that will integrate with applications currently in use by ITD and the County.
NetBrain is scalable and flexible and will provide ITD with valuable network management tools to assist with the optimization, minimize downtime, and safeguard against potential cybersecurity attacks of the County’s network.
Additionally, ITD utilizes Gartner, Inc. (Gartner), a contracted global information technology research and consulting agency, to determine the best options for a network monitoring solution based on the County’s functional requirements. Gartner is an industry leader in technological research, and consulting services comprised of over 12,000 client organizations in over 100 countries for entities in the information technology and government sector working with organizations to develop technology strategies, plans and budgets, as well as selecting the right technologies for their operations.
Gartner research is referenced continuously by ITD staff to obtain relevant research, comparison, and ranking of technology solutions. Gartner ranks NetBrain as a leading provider of network automation solutions due to NetBrain’s superior capabilities in the three main areas that address ITD’s functional requirements of network monitoring and mapping, network troubleshooting, and network change automation. All three of these functional capabilities align with the comparative analysis requirements conducted by ITD.
The Purchasing Department concurs with the non-competitive procurement of the NetBrain platform due to its functional specifications. A comparative analysis with other network solutions indicated that NetBrain is the only vendor that meets ITD’s performance and quality requirements.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed County Counsel (Bonnie Uphold, Supervising Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on March 17, 2025; Purchasing (Dylan Newton, Buyer III, 387-3377) on February 26, 2025; Risk Management (Gregory Ustaszewski, Staff Analyst, 386-9008) on February 18, 2025; Finance (Ivan Ramirez, Administrative Analyst, 387-4020) on March 4, 2025; and County Finance and Administration (Paloma Hernandez-Barker, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on March 7, 2025.