HomeMy WebLinkAboutRESPONSE - RFP - P694 REMOTE ACCESS PROVIDER (2)Proposal for Internetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
1.2.2 Contact Representative
Kathleen Stenby will be coordinating the administrative tasks associated
with The City of Fort Collins, marshalling technical resources as required to
ensure the project's completion. Kathleen can be reached by telephone at
(970) 225-9911 xl01, or (970) 225-1619 FAX.
1 2.3 Y2K Compliance
All Peak to Peak software subsystems have been verified for proper
operation for Year 2000 compliance. Many upstream vendors, such as
Cisco systems and American Power Conversion, are also ISO 9000-
compliant
12 4 Billing Procedures
The City of Fort Collins will be billed separately for each department A
detailed, itemized invoice will be presented to each department that utilizes
the remote access VPN. Any questions regarding this item may be referred
to the contact listed in Section 12 2
2.0 Products and Services
Peak to Peak Internet will provide the following services to the City of Fort
Collins•
• T1 Frame Relay connectivity, with a PVC to the city's data center from
the Peak to Peak Network Operations Center (NOC)
• Call authentication and auditing for all dialup users, including the
assignment of a unique static IP address for each individual dialup user
• Telephone help desk services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. City of
Fort Collins users will call the main technical support number, and enter
a special priority code to gain access to round-the-clock support
• IP and IPX routing, end -to -end, from dialup modem pool through the
frame switching cloud
• Isolation of all City of Fort Collins dialup users, via a fully -switched
Ethernet and Virtual LAN (VLAN) segmentation at Layer 2 In addition,
all traffic will be routed to the City of Fort Collins PVC frame
Phone: 225-9911 2 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
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Proposal for ternetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
problems with their equipment. He has been working with computers for
over 12 years.
Phone: 225-9911 11 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
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Baseline VPN Requirements
• High Availability and Reliability
• Modem and ISDN connections, K56Flex and V.90 compatibility
• Secure Authentication via Internet -standard RADIUS
• Private Peering via Frame Cloud
• Departmental Billing
• 24x7 technical support availability
H
Availability and Reliability
• Over 99.5% uptime
• Y2K - compliant
• ISO 9000 Vendors
• RAID-5 Hot sparing with cold shelf spares, ICP Vortex controllers
from Germany
• Redundant Uninterruptible Power System
• PRI's only, no bit -robbed telco services
• 24x7 monitoring with SNMP
• Global Roaming with the market leader
• Conscientious Production -minded staff
• Webpage Account Activation
Peak to Peak Advantages
• STAC Compression on all lines
• State of the Art Redundant Power
• RAID-5 on Redundant Authentication Servers
• Wass Global Roaming
• Local access along the Front Range
• Innovative Network Engineering Staff with Electrical Engineering
backgrounds
• Flexible Billing
Proposal for Intemetwork Connectivity- The City of Fort Collins
connection, and will be blocked from entering the Internet via the Peak
to Peak upstream feeds.
• Dialup speeds of 56K utilizing the K56Flex and V 90 standards will be
accommodated, as well as legacy 28 8 and 33.6 Kbps modems. ISDN
connectivity is also available. In the future, ADSL (Adaptive Digital
Subscriber Line) connectivity will be available.
• (Optional, at no charge) Dialup configuration software, distributed on a
CD, for all popular operating systems from Microsoft. Other operating
systems available upon request.
• (Optional) Peak to Peak Internet can assist with the configuration and
deployment of Microsoft PPTP VPN dialup networking, if required
PPTP provides a secure channel between the dialup client and the NT
servers via a tunneled TCP/IP connection utilizing GRE
3.0 Price Schedule
Non Recurring Costs.
Service
Pricing
Frame Relay PVC
$295
Modem Dialup User Accounts
No Charge
ISDN Setup
No Charge
Recurring Costs.
Dialup Services
Description
Price
Dialup Access
28 8K, 33 6K and 56K (Flex & v 90)
$19 75/month
Active Unlimited
modem dialup
ISDN Services
Description
Price
Dial -Up ISDN Access
Up 80 hours/month online ISDN single B
$35/month
Metered Plan
channel (64K) Plus $20 set-up fee
64K
Additional hours are $1 00/hour
Dial -Up ISDN Access
Up 40 hours/month online ISDN 2 B
$35/month
Metered Plan
channel (128K) Plus $20 set-up fee
128K
Additional hours are $2 00/hour
Dial -Up Access
Unlimited active access to the Internet
$47/month
Unlimited Active
ISDN single B channel (64K) Plus $20 set -
Access
up fee
64K
Dial -Up Access
Unlimited active access ISDN, 2 B channels
$83/month
Phone: 225-9911 3 hnp://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for Lemetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
Unlimited Active
(128K) Plus $20 set-up fee
Access
128K
Tl Frame Relay
$129/month
PVC and Routing
up to 300 users
* All plans include the highest quality digital lines with 56K capability or ISDN
4.0 Schedule
Services can be deployed within approximately 3 weeks, including testing
Initial account setup and configuration can begin immediately. Additional
time should be allowed in the event of necessity, due to the recent strike of
the Communication Workers of America union.
5.0 References
The following companies are familiar with the services and
qualify of Peak to Peak Internet. and may he contacted for
reference.
Landmark Financial Corporation
Mike Bauman, mikeglfcmc coin
(800)430-9713 x18
(Dedicated office connectivity)
The TWAIN Working Group
Tim Callen, webmaster(c_btwam orQ
(International web hosting and custom development)
Colorado Rapids Pro Soccer Team
Phillip Anschutz Corporation
Jason Greene, jzreenie@kekoa com
(Mission -critical web hosting on an international scale)
Mark Joseph Edwards
NT Magazine
Mark@ntshop net
(Dedicated connectivity)
Paul Halter
Phone: 225-9911 4 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for ternetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
Wind Ryder Engineering
Phalterna peakpeak com
(Mission -critical day trading ISDN connectivity)
Thomas Sullivan
T J Sullivan and Associates
Tlsully peakpeak com
(Dedicated 56K Frame Relay Connectivity)
Phone: 225-9911 5 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for ternetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
6.0 [Proprietary] Competitive Advantages of Peak to Peak
Internet
This section details the features of the Network Operations Center at Peak
to Peak Internet local to Fort Collins, CO.
This information is considered proprietary to Peak to Peak Internet, and
should not be disclosed publicly without prior written permission.
Peak to Peak Internet is a notch above the typical local Internet access
provider due to three (3) prime reasons:
Excellent Customer Service
Data Center Reliability and Architecture
• Knowledgeable Network Engineering Staff
Phone: 225-991I 6 http*//www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
(10
Proposal for terrietwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
6.1 Excellent Customer Service
Peak to Peak Internet frequently gets favorable customer responses. One of
the largest sources of new customers to Peak to Peak comes from customer
referrals to family and friends.
6 2 Data Center Reliability and Architecture
• The Peak to Peak NOC currently enjoys uptime of over 99.5% annually
This is achievable because of the quality of components used, and the
care in assembly and maintenance of NOC facilities
• The Peak to Peak NOC maintains full RAID-5 mass storage (Redundant
Array of Disks) with parity -striping and hot spare support. This is an
expensive upgrade that ensures high -availability. If a disk drive fails,
another drive becomes available and is automatically rebuilt on the fly.
Hot spares assure this capability, and all arrays are also hot-swappable in
the event a cold spare is needed for service
• Peak to Peak Internet maintains redundant authentication servers. In the
event that one server becomes momentarily unavailable, another server
authenticates users that attempt to log in to the network
• The Peak to Peak NOC maintains a state of the art redundant power
backup system (see Figure 1) The American Power Conversion (APC)
Symmetra uninterruptible power supply (UPS) has a redundant path. In
the event that a UPS failure occurs, a redundant controller takes over to
provide intelligence The unit lasts several hours unattended, and is fully
backed with a generator in the event that longer power outages persist.
Fort Collins has been known to experience localized outages of up to 8
hours in recent years. Although not all residents may ,have power in a
city outage to operate their computer, it should be noted that outages are
not always city-wide. In this case, a reliable power system is a necessary
component for a high -availability data center.
Phone: 225-9911 Z hitp://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for temetwork Connectivity The City of Fort Collins
Figure 1. Redundant Uninterruptible Power Array
• Peak to Peak Internet maintains services to other municipalities and
localities in Colorado In the event that a employee of the City of Fort
Collins lives in Boulder, Longmont, Greeley, or any of the other areas
serviced by Peak to Peak Internet along the Front Range, they will still
be able to utilize the VPN specified in this proposal. With the sprawling
nature of many company employees, Peak to Peak Internet adopted this
regional focus long ago.
• The Peak to Peak Internet NOC is fully SNMP manageable end -to -end
(Simple Network Management Protocol). This allows the staff to be
paged in the event of any irregularity in services
• Peak to Peak Internet will provide a network monitor web page for the
City of Fort Collins' Network Engineers. Using these password -
protected web pages, the city network engineers can monitor their usage
and make intelligent decisions about capacity and utilization (see Figure
2)
Phone: 225-9911 8 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for ternetwork Connectivity. The City of ort Collins
The statistics were last updated Thursday, 3 September 1998 at 13.10
at which tune 'Longs' had been up for 11 days, 6:53.05
Daily' Graph (5 1M;nute Average)
48.0
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0 36.0
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0 24.0
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s 12.0
s
3
z
0.0
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Max 430 ports (93 5%) Average a 19 0 ports (41 3%) Current z, j lar > 220 ports (47 8%)
Max ISDN 3 0 ports (6 5%) Average ISDN 2 0 ports (43%) Current ISDN 2 0 ports (4 3%)
Figure 2 SNMP Manageability of Resources
• The Peak to Peak Internet NOC maintains a packet -filtering firewall,
with all unnecessary services being blocked at the border routers This
makes the system much more impervious to external impairments In
addition, all incoming connections at the dialup network edge are also
filtered from "Smurf," "Land," and other attacks. The Peak to Peak staff
aggressively monitors notification resources in the event new attacks
become known to the hacker community.
• The Peak to Peak Internet NOC maintains cold -spare equipment in the
event of catastrophic equipment failure Extra equipment is always on
hand
• Peak to Peak Internet only uses PRI (Primary Rate Interface) data lines
for ISDN and modem dialup connections. No Channelized Tl or other
bit -robbed telecomm services are used. This ensures the highest -speed
connections, more immune from the problems of bit -robbed services.
These lines cost more, but allow for a more pleasant end -user experience.
In addition, they minimize technical support queries.
6 3 Knowledgable and Responsive Network Engineering Staff
Phone: 225-9911 9 http://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998
Proposal for ternetwork Connectivity The City of ort Collins
It should be noted that one of the requirements adopted by the City of Fort
Collins proposal No P-694, the use of a frame relay connection to keep
traffic from going out over the open Internet, was initially proposed by Peak
to Peak Internet.
This is one example of the kind of innovative network engineering and
depth of knowledge that has earned Peak to Peak Internet the reputation of
being a trusted, reliable service.
Two of Peak to Peak's network engineers are in the process of obtaining
their Cisco Certified Interrietworking Expert accreditation. All Peak to Peak
Internet staffers are enrolled in customer -sensitivity training, and are
encouraged to assist customers in any way that they can
6.3 1 Key Support Staff
Chris Magnuson — The principal architect of the network, Chris is active in
the Internet development community. Holding a BSEE degree from CSU,
he stays active in the day to day operations of the company He has been
published in many periodicals, including MacTech magazine.
Earl Pedmski — Earl is a data center technician who is frequently on -call for
difficult customer problems. He has many years of system administrator
experience for prominent IT organizations
Lyndsy Doyle — Lyndsy has been with Peak to Peak Internet for over a year,
and provides primary customer care services.
Travis Lawall — Travis helps customers solve tough technical support
issues, and maintains the Peak to Peak web servers. He is a sought-after
consultant to many prominent local companies, and specializes in difficult
CGI programming problems.
Dana Christy — Dana has provided technical support and call center
customer communications services to regional ISP's in Colorado for over 2
years.
Chris Merrick — The lead technical support technician, Chris keeps a close
watch over the network when he isn't helping customers solve connectivity
Phone: 225-9911 10 bttp://www.peakpeak.com
September 3, 1998