OFA/DNCHostingProposal

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:

Description DNCCharges OFACharges

Basetechnologyfee $9,750 $9,750

Contributioncharge $3,096 $302

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Emaillistsubscribercharge $0 $10,245

Faxcharge $3 $0

Bandwidthcharge $1,050(est.) $3,017

TotalCharges $13,799 $23,314

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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