IT Governance Business Case
Durham Police Department
Background
The City of Durham Police Department utilizes various containers for digital evidence storage, including local storage via Nutanix on premise data center, and cloud storage via Foray Digital Evidence Management System and Axon Evidence.com. This evidence comes from Axon capture devices such as in-car and body-work cameras, helmet camps, and phones. The Foray data is collected and uploaded by Forensics and Investigators working crime scenes, and local storage is mostly comprised of historical data and some active evidentiary data.
The various digital evidence storage locations have storage limits and are paid for a la carte, costing the City of Durham more based on the utilization per terabyte. Below are the storage solutions' limits and the utilized storage capacity:
Current Business Problem
The current digital evidence storage solutions are nearing capacity in terms of the available storage. Axon Solution has exceeded the available storage capacity and is increasing the balance owed by the City of Durham as the data storage continues to increase. The rate of growth for stored digital evidence data requires additional storage capacity to meet the needs of PD.
The current Axon Evidence contract has 32 months remaining.
Current Pain Points
•Local storage is near capacity and is expected to reach capacity by May 2024. The current growth rate for local storage is .54 TB per month.
•Foray DEMS storage is near capacity and is expected to reach capacity by August 2024. The current growth rate for Foray DEMS is .48 TB per month
•Axon Evidence storage has exceeded capacity by 28.6 TB, and the current growth rate is 1 TB per week.
•The Police Department doesn't have the available storage capacity to meet the growing needs of digital evidence storage retention.
Desired Business Value
City of Durham's Strategic Plan Goal:
Goal 2: Create a Safer Community Together
Goal 4: Innovative & High Performing Organization
TS Objective 1: Plan and allocate IT investments in accordance with the City's IT Governance model to ensure sustainable growth
Future State Benefits
• Adequate storage capacity for digital evidence management, meeting the digital evidence data growth needs
• Improved stewardship of data capacity of PD’s local storage, Foray DEMS, and Axon Evidence.
• Local storage growth will not be utilized and not need to be expanded
• Foray DEMS storage capacity will not need to be expanded
• Improved oversight and management of IT resources through increased level of partnership between TS and PD
Analysis and Recommended Solution
Knowns:
• Axon storage costs are $672 per TB/year
Unknowns:
• Actual data growth expectancy. Below numbers are projections based on recent data growth
The below chart is based on 36 months costs, although the remainder of contract is 32 months Including another
Capitalized a la carte storage cost projections
Knowns:
• Axon storage costs are $672 per TB/year
• Based on historical data growth, the amount of data growth expected over next 32 months is 160.64 TB
Unknowns:
• Actual data growth expectancy. Below numbers are projections based on recent data growth
Capitalized unlimited storage costs
• Axon is providing an additional option to convert to unlimited storage for the remainder of the 32-month contract for $407,828.80
• The costs can be broken into 3 annualized payments or capitalized in one payment
• This option would ensure that regardless of data growth, storage would be available in an unlimited capacity
Additional Considerations
• Projected costs for annualized and capitalized a la carte options are based on recent historical growth data. This is not indicative of the actual evidence storage growth needs in the future
• There are unknown variables that could impact data growth from public safety events such as elections, riots, etc.
• Actual costs are not certain, and due to the nature of the data storage need it is important to ensure adequate storage capacity for digital evidence management
• Once the current Axon contract is expired, the contract renewal or new contract with newly selected vendor should account for unlimited storage
• Oversight of PD IT resources should be increasingly shared with Technology Solutions to ensure adequate future growth planning and forecasting to prevent emergency needs from arising in the future, such as this
Recommended Solution:
Purchase unlimited storage package with Axon for remainder of contract & ensure next storage contract has unlimited storage
Description
Purchasing the unlimited storage package from Axon for the remainder of the contract will ensure PD has the needed digital evidence storage capacity for projected data growth, also considering unknown variables impacting data storage growth
Pros
• Adequate storage capacity for digital evidence management, meeting the digital evidence data growth needs
• Improved stewardship of data capacity of PD’s Nutanix, Foray DEMS, and Axon Evidence.
• N/A
Security Review
The recommended solution meets the cyber security standards for the City of Durham.
Architecture Review
The recommended solution meets the architectural standards for the City of Durham.
Recommended Solution - Project Financial Estimate
Risk Identification
Mitigation Risk (Costs)
• N/A
Contingency Risk (Costs)
• N/A
Our ask
We are asking the IT Governance Steering Committee to approve the business case for the Police Department to purchase add-on unlimited storage package for digital evidence data storage for the remainder of the Axon Evidence contract