Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
April28,2009
Overview
OrganizingforAmerica(OFA)andtheDemocraticNationalCommittee(DNC)eachhaveseparatecontractswith
BlueStateDigital(BSD).TheOFAcontractprovidesforBSDtohostthemy.barackobama.comwebsiteon
dedicatedserverhardware.TheDNCcontractpresumesthattheDNCwillhostthedemocrats.orgsiteonitsin
househostinginfrastructure.
Thecurrentmodelisnotcosteffective.OFAandtheDNCarepayingfortwosetsofhostinginfrastructure.
Additionally,thereliabilityoftheinhouseDNCinfrastructurehasprovedtobebothunacceptablypoor
(especiallyintheareasofuptimeandemaildeliverability)andhasbeenanimpedimenttosomefeature
deployment,includingreintegrationofneighbortoneighbor.
Thisproposalsummarizesthecurrenthostingsituationandproposesanalternativethatwouldhostboththe
DNCandOFAsitesonasinglesetofBSDhostedinfrastructure.Theresultshouldbeoverallcostsavingsand
improvedserviceandreliabilityfortheDNCsite.
SummaryofCurrentLicenseandHosting
OrganizingforAmerica:
Basefeeis$15,000/monthforlicensing,support,andsoftwareupdates.Inaddition,OFApays$14,450/month
indedicatedhardwarefees.Mostmonths,thereareoveragesofapproximately$510Kformailinglistsize,
bandwidth,andcontributionfees.
TotalmonthlycostforOFAis$3540K.
DemocraticNationalCommittee:
TheDNCcurrentlypaysBSD$5,225foraccesstoregularsoftwareupdatesandsupport.Inaddition,theDNC
pays$2,824for20hoursofsystemsadministrationsupport(BSDassistingDNCsinhousesystems
administrators).TotalmonthlyBSDchargesare$8K.
Inaddition,theDNCpaystomaintainasetofinhouseserverinfrastructure.AlthoughBSDdoesnothave
accesstotheexactcosts,wewouldestimatethattheDNCisspendingapproximately$15K/monthinhosting,
colocation,bandwidth,andothervendorcharges,$1518K/monthinstaffandpersonalcosts,and$4K/month
inamortizedhardwarecosts.
ThetotalmonthlycostfortheDNCisestimatedtobe$4245K.
Overall
AcrossboththeDNCandOFA,thetotalcostforlicensingandhostingis$7785K/month.
ProposedReplacementStructure
BSDproposestoprovideaunifiedpricingstructureforboththeDNCandOFA.Bothsiteswouldbehostedby
BSDonhardwarethatisdedicatedtothesetwosites.BSDwouldhaveallresponsibilityformaintaining,
supporting,andupdatingthesystems.
Aswithallourhostedclients,BSDwouldprovide:
HostinginsecurecolocationfacilitiesinBostonandChicago
Regularsoftwareupdates
24/7monitoringofsiteandhardware
24/7oncallsystemsadministratorwhocanrespondtositeproblems
Offsitedatabasebackup
Emaildeliverabilitymonitoringandmanagement
AccesstospareBSDhardwareintheeventofanemergency
UseofsharedBSDinfrastructurecomponentsincludingZXTMLayer7loadbalancerandexpansive
maildeliveryinfrastructure
Licensing,Support,andMaintenance
BecausetheDNCandOFAeachhaveaseparatecopyoftheBSDtoolsetthatmustbemaintainedindependently,
eachsitewouldbebilledseparately.However,thisproposalwouldunifythepricingstructuresothatthereis
consistencyforbothsites.Eachsitewouldbebilledat:
$9,750basetechnologyfee
$0.35percontribution
$150foreach100,000emaillistsubscribersover4million
$0.10perpageforfaxessentthroughadvocacytools
$0.35perGBofdatatransferred
ThispricingisnearlyidenticaltothecurrentOFApricingstructure,butwithadiscounttoreflectfalling
bandwidthprices.ThefollowingchartshowswhattheDNCandOFAcostswouldhavebeenforthemonthof
March2009underthispricingmodel:
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Emaillistsubscribercharge $0 $10,245
Faxcharge $3 $0
Underthismodel,thelicensing,support,andmaintenancecostsforMarch2009wouldhavebeenacombined
$37,113forboththeOFAandBSDsites.
DedicatedHardware
BSDalreadyhoststheOFAsiteondedicatedhardware.Weproposetousemuchofthesamehardwaretohost
theDNCsiteaswell.Thisarrangement,possiblywithsmalladditionsofnewgear,shouldbesufficientthrough
the2010cycle.However,onceweenterintothe2012electioncycle,wemaywantconsidersplittingtheDNC
andOFAontotheirownhardwaresoastoprovidemaximumscalingcapabilitiesforthereelect.
ThecurrentOFAdedicatedhardwareisasfollows:
1xPrimaryproductiondatabase
1xSecondaryreplicadatabase
1xNeighbortoNeighbordatabase
4xWebservers
1xCronserver
1xReportingdatabase
Thecurrentcostforthisdedicatedhardwareis$14,550/month.
InordertomigratetheDNContothisplatform,BSDwouldneedtoaddthefollowingadditionaldedicated
hardware:
1xStagingserver
2xWebservers
1xShelfofdisksforNetAppSAN
Theupfrontcosttoacquireandinstallthisnewhardwarewouldbe$34,500.IftheDNCisabletotransfer
existingweb/stagingserverhardwaretoBSD,acreditforthefairmarketvalueofthisgearwouldbeapplied
againstthepurchaseandinstallationcosts.
Withtheadditionofthisnewhardware,thetotalmonthlyfeewouldriseto$20,750(fromitscurrent$14,550).
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MigrationofDNCSite
ThefinalpieceofthepuzzleisthemigrationoftheexistingDNCsitetothenewhostinginfrastructure.BSDwill
migratethe:
ExistingMoveableTypeinstallation,includingexistingcontent,workflowsystem,anddeploymenttools
FullBSD/PartyBuildertoolsetincludingallexistingforms,contributionpages/history,mailinghistory,
anduserdata
Amigrationfeeof$45,000willcoverthecostofplanningandexecutingasitemove,minimizingdowntimeand
ensuringasmoothcutover.Allrequiredsoftwaremodificationandsystemsadministrationworkneededto
executethemoveisincluded.However,cooperationandsupportfromtheDNCstechnologyteamwillbe
requiredtoensureanorderlymigration.Thisfeeincludesallnecessarytravel,shipping,andbandwidthcosts,
aswellastheapproximately250hoursoflabornecessarytosuccessfullyeffectamigrationofthesitewhile
minimizingdowntime.
AddingItUp
Upfrontcosts
Thetablebelowshowstotalupfrontcostsforeffectingthehostingsolutionproposedinthisdocument.
Description Amount
Additionaldedicatedhardwarepurchaseandinstallation $34,500
MigrationofDNCsite $45,000
TotalUpfrontCosts: $79,500
MonthlyCosts
Thetablebelowshowstotalmonthlycostsunderthenewpricingstructure,usingsameusagenumbersfrom
March2009.
Description Amount
OFAbasetechnologyfee(fixed) $9,750
OFAbandwidth,contribution,fax,andmailinglistcharges $13,500
(variableestimatedbasedonMarch2009)
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DNCbasetechnologyfee(fixed) $9,750
DNCbandwidth,contribution,fax,andmailinglistcharges $4,000
(variableestimatedbasedonMarch2009)
Dedicatedhosting $20,750
TotalMonthlyCosts(estimatedbasedonMarch2009): $57,750
SavingsSummary
ThecurrentcombinedcostforhostingtheDNCandOFAsitesisestimatedtobe$7785K/month.Basedonour
assumptionsofthecurrentDNChostingcosts,thestructureoutlinedinthisproposalwouldsavetheDNC
approximately$2025K/month.Theadditionalupfrontcostswouldberecoupedin34months.Thetimeto
recoupcouldbefurtherdecreasedbysellingDNCownedhardwarethatwillnolongerbeneededoncethesite
ismigrated.
Timeline
WeestimatethatthemigrationoftheDNCsiteintotheBSDhostinginfrastructurewilltakeapproximately810
weeks.Thisincludethetimeneededtoorderandconfigurehardware,planningforthemigration,afully
executeddryrunofthemigrationprocess,theactualtransferofthesite,andsubsequentcleanupandissue
resolution.
CustomDevelopment
Customdevelopmentisaddressedinaseparatestatementofwork.
NextSteps
1. Reviewanddiscussproposal
2. Agreetotermsandsignrevisedcontract
3. BSDwillprovidedraftscheduleforDNCsitemigrationforreview
4. BSDwillworktoidentifymilestonesandDNCrequirementsformigration
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