Dear Mr Williams,
Re: - Request for Information - ICT Infrastructure - reference number ITC/ACPDE6
Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 10 August 2016 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”).
In response to your request, I have summarised the information as follows (our responses in blue):
1. What is your annual IT Infrastructure Budget for 2016 & 2017?
The Council do not allocate a set budget for IT Infrastructure. There are two Revenue budgets totalling 2.6m which cover support and maintenance contracts, licenses, and infrastructure refresh. Procurement and implementation of new infrastructure is typically capitalised, with business cases submitted and approved on a case by case basis.
2. What storage vendor(s) and model do you currently use?
The Council use both EMC (VNX5700, VNX5800, Centera and Data Domain) and IBM (V7000).
a. When was the installation date of above storage vendor(s)?
The Storage Arrays (VNX5700, VNX5800 and V7000) were installed at various times throughout 2012 and 2013.
The Data Domains were installed in 2012.
The Centera storage devices were installed in 2015.
b. When is your planned (or estimated) storage refresh date? (Month/year)
The intention is to review the storage requirements before the end of 2016. No date is set at this point in time.
c. What is your estimated budget for the refresh?
This will be informed by the requirements.
d. What date does your storage support contract end? (Month/year)
IBM V7000 - February 2017.
EMC VNX5700, VNX5800 and Data Domains - December 2017.
EMC Centera - May 2018.
e. What is the value of your storage support contract?
There are various support contracts in place for the Storage Arrays, Data Domains and Centera devices. The combined contract value for 2016/2017 is £260,000.
f. What is the capacity of the storage data in TB?
EMC VNX5700 and VNX5800 Storage Arrays - 480TB.
V7000 Storage Arrays - 107TB.
Centera Storage Devices (Archive) - 75TB.
Data Domains (Backup) - 151TB.
3. What backup software do you use?
EMC Networker.
a. How much data do you backup in TB?
Approximately 70TB of data is backed up each week.
b. When is your planned (or estimated) backup software refresh date? (Month/year)
The intention is to review the backup requirements before the end of 2016.
c. What is the estimated budget for your backup software refresh?
This will be informed by the requirements.
d. When does your backup support contract end? (Month/year)
December 2017
e. What is the value of your backup support contract?
£18,000 (12 months)
4. What compute vendor(s) and model do you currently use?
In the main the estate is made up of HP, IBM and Oracle SPARC compute -
Oracle SPARC - M5000, M10, V490, T5140
HP - BL465c Gen8
IBM - x3650, x3850
a. Number of servers?
Total Number of Servers - 1209
b. What operating system(s) do you use?
Solaris
Windows Server
Linux
AIX
c. What percentage is virtualised?
95%
d. Virtualisation platform?
VMware
e. When is your planned (or estimated) compute refresh date? (Month/year)
There is no set date for a refresh of all compute.
It is anticipated that the Oracle SPARC M5000, V490 and T5140 compute will be replaced before April 2017.
The intention is to replace the IBM x3650 and x3850 compute before February 2017.
f. When does your compute support contract end? (Month/year)
There is no single compute support contract in place. The main compute infrastructure support contracts are as follows -
Oracle SPARC - M5000, V490, T5140 - November 2016.
Oracle SPARC - M10 - February 2021.
HP - BL465c Gen8 - December 2018.
IBM - x3650, x3850 - February 2017.
g. What is the value of the compute support contract?
There are various contracts in place. The contracts covering the main compute infrastructure are as follows -
Oracle SPARC - M5000, V490, T5140 - £16,000 (6 months).
Oracle SPARC - M10 - £12,000 (12 months).
HP - BL465c Gen8 - No annual cost, covered under warranty with HP until December 2018.
IBM - x3650, x3850 - £50,000 (12 months - covers both the IBM V7000 Storage Arrays and Compute).
5. If you outsource your IT works, please provide who it is with and when the contract started and ends.
Not applicable.
In addition, please provide a copy of your current IT Strategy and an organisation chart depicting the IT department with contact names and telephone numbers.
We are unable to provide names of individuals however the organisation chart with positions is attached and all can be contacted through our main telephone number on 0161 234 5000.
Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review. If you wish an internal review to be undertaken you should contact the Democratic Services Legal Team, whose address is, PO Box 532, Town Hall, Manchester, M60 2LA, email:
in the first instance. A copy of the Council’s access to information complaints procedure can be downloaded from If you do not have internet access and require a paper copy, please let me know.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review process, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545700
Fax: 01625 524510
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
Yours sincerely