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Ottawa County GIS Group RFP for Cloud Migration and Hosting

The Ottawa County GIS group is seeking proposals from experienced vendors for GIS system Cloud Migration and Hosting/ Maintenance services. See the RFP and supporting documentation downloadable by selecting the following.

All questions regarding this RFP shall be presented to the Ottawa County Auditor's Office GIS Rebecca Markajani, GIS Coordinator/Real Estate Manager at rmarkajani@co.ottawa.oh.us.

The deadline has been extended to Friday September 12th at 4PM EST. The deadline for submitting questions has therefore also been extended to Friday September 5th.

Questions and Responses:

Will there be a formal Q&A process and if so, can you share that information. If not, are you able to meet with potential vendors?

All questions should be sent to Rebecca Markajani, rmarkajani@co.ottawa.oh.us by Friday August 22, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. EST. The responses will be posted here on the Auditor's website Thursday or Friday of the week following the questions submission. We are not available to meet with potential vendors. 

The document notes that you are requesting four physical copies be delivered. Is there also an electronic submission process or are you requiring physical copies solely?

Due to record retention policies the 4 physical copies are a requirement. However, if you would like to submit electronically in addition to the physical copies you can also submit an external hard drive/ thumb drive with a digital copy and/or email a digital copy to rmarkajani@co.ottawa.oh.us. 

Updates as of August 26th

Vendor 1:

1.Will there be any data or content to migrate into this new cloud environment? For example, Portal content, databases, imagery, feature services, etc. If so, provide details on content type, amounts, and size.  # of services, # of databases, etc.

8 Geodatabases currently in SQLExpress and published through Portal as map services and feature services will be needed to be migrated to the new environment. There are no imagery services. Our current rest services can be viewed at https://gis.co.ottawa.oh.us/arcgis/rest/services with _CW and _RegionalPlanning having feature services for editing. 

Our current database is currently approximately 13 GB with an additional 570 GB in other linked files. 

2. Who is expected to migrate this content?

The consultant will be expected to migrate all current content. 

3. What are the current server specs and utilization?  (cpu, ram, storage, etc.)

The current server is a virtual machine with the following settings.

4. How many GIS “power users” will be creating content and editing directly against the enterprise geodatabase? 

Currently 5 with the expectation of growth in the next few years.

Vendor 2: 

Current System Details: 

  1. What is the current data volume (TB/GB) stored in the SQL Express database? 

Approximately 13 GB plus approximately 560 GB of linked files. 

  1. Are there any custom applications or integrations beyond the listed third-party vendors that need to be migrated? 

We are currently utilizing webapp builder and Experience Builder applications that must continue to work. 

  1. What is the current user count by department and expected growth over the 5-year contract period?

Please refer to our GIS Network Attachment for current license and user counts per department. Our intention is to expand anywhere from 10 to 100 users and to other departments/ jurisdictions.  

  1. What is the current backup strategy and recovery time objectives (RTO/RPO)? 

Each geodatabase is backed up each day in SQLExpress. We would expect a recovery time of 1 hour or as soon as possible. A successful potential vendor should describe their expected solution time. 

Cloud Infrastructure: 

  1. Are there any specific compliance requirements (CJIS, FISMA, etc.) that the cloud solution must meet? 

Cloud solutions must comply with all cybersecurity regulations and requirements established by the State of Ohio. 

  1. What level of uptime is required (99%, 99.9%, 99.99%)? 

Ideally 95% with communication of required downtime scheduled at least one week in advance. 

Third-Party Systems: 

  1. What is the criticality level of each integration (mission-critical vs. nice-to-have)?

This will depend on the department but in general treat all current data as mission-critical information. Further agreements might need to be made in any future contracts. 

Esri Landscape:

  1. How many compute environments are envisaged in the cloud? (e.g. Production, Staging, Development) 

Production and Test/Staging but we are open to other suggestions depending on ease of administration and cybersecurity risks.

  1. Can you please share the output of the ‘Enterprise GIS Reporter’ for your current ArcGIS Enterprise deployment? (Running GIS Enterprise Reporter)

Yes, the output is including along with the rest of the attachments. 

  1. Are you planning to upgrade ArcGIS Enterprise version during the migration, or maintain current 11.2 versions initially? 

Maintain current 11.2 version initially to ensure a stable environment before upgrading. 

  1. Which authentication mode are you using with SQL Express? (Eg, Database authentication, OS authentication, Mixed authentication)

We currently use mixed authentication-GIS EDITOR/VIEWER uses SQL Server Authentication, named users are OS authentication.

  1. How many ArcGIS Pro power users do you have that interact with the database system directly for editing and authoring maps? How many of them do you anticipate will be concurrently requiring access to ArcGIS Pro?

We currently have 5 power users and require access to Pro by 7 users total. For more information on the breakdown of license levels see the GIS Network attachment. 

  1. Do your future initiatives for the Auditor's office and the Sanitary Engineering Department include Parcel Fabric and Utility Network implementation? 

At some point in the next few years the Auditor’s office intends to convert to Parcel Fabric but it is not currently a priority. Yes, Sanitary Engineering does intend to implement utility network in the future. 

 Support Requirements:

  1. What are your expected response times for different severity levels (system down vs. general questions)? 

For system down level issues we expect an initial acknowledgement within 30 minutes and a solution within an hour for business hours. For general questions we expect a response within 24-48 hours. 

  1. What hours of operation require active support coverage (business hours vs. extended)? 

Regular business hours, Monday through Friday 8AM-5PM.

System Performance: 

  1. What are your current system performance benchmarks (response times, concurrent users)?

Benchmarks aside from those carried out by our County IT department are not logged at this time. 

Vendor 3:

What is the due date for this proposal? Is it possible to get it pushed to 8 September 2025 as this would be a Monday?

The deadline has been extended to Friday September 12th at 4PM EST. The deadline for submitting questions has therefore also been extended to Friday September 5th.

Vendor 4:

For bid like RFP you guys post it on your website, right? but how do you do purchase for small orders? Like a Monitor or Printer with 1 quantity?
Do you have a separate vender list for that?

Yes, all the information for the RFP is posted on the Auditor's website. This is handled by the County IT department. You will have to contact them separately. Please note, this specific request was forwarded to the IT department over email. 

Updates as of September 4th

Do the 7 ArcGIS Pro users have ArcGIS Pro accessible on their client machines, or will they need it delivered through a virtual desktop? If delivered through a virtual desktop what level of concurrency should be accounted for? (e.g., 2-3 users will require access at the same time)

The 7 users will have ArcGIS Pro accessible on their client machines.