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New State Agency Makes First Million-Dollar Purchase

The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, formerly the Department of Business Oversight, has been ramping up its spending. Notable purchases include security products such as firewalls, as well as audio-video equipment.

The state’s newly rebranded Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) made its first million-dollar purchase for IT goods last week.

The department was revamped and rechristened last month with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on Assembly Bill 1864, which not only renamed the agency — formerly the Department of Business Oversight — but also broadened its scope. The measure, which officially takes effect in January, gives the department “expanded enforcement powers to protect California consumers from pandemic-inspired scams, promote innovation, clarify regulatory hurdles for emerging products and increase education and outreach for vulnerable groups,” according to the DFPI website.  

The department’s five largest expenditures since Jan. 1 are led by a $1,108,226 contract with Patriot IT Solutions of Lincoln for “Software, VMware vRealize Network Insight Cloud for Private Clouds.” VMware explains that the vRealize Network Insight Cloud improves “network visibility, troubleshooting, and security planning across public, private, and hybrid clouds.” It’s a 36-month contract that was awarded through the state’s Software Licensing Program (SLP).

After that contract, here are the next four largest contracts for IT goods since Jan. 1:

  • “Video Package — 8X6 Seamless Scaling Presentation Matrix Switcher, DTP Receivers and Transmitters, Digital Transmitters-100 Meter Range,” for a large conference room. The contract, for $331,893, was with Elite Cable Systems of Gold River and was let through the California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS).  
  • “Base Backup Appliance, ANCHOR DP APPLIANCE 4400,” a $319,197 contract for Dell’s “converged, all-in-one data protection appliance tailor-made for small and mid-size organizations, as well as enterprise ROBO deployments.” The product “offers complete backup, deduplication, replication, recovery, instant access and restore, search and analytics, and seamless VMware integration — plus, cloud readiness with disaster recovery and long-term retention to the cloud,” according to Dell. The contract is with Kovarus Inc. and was awarded through the statewide contracts schedule.
  • “Power supply, Palo Alto Networks PA-3250 with redundant AC power supplies,” a $145,733 contract with Enterprise Networking Solutions (ENS-Inc) of Rancho Cordova. The Palo Alto firewall product “enables you to secure your organization through advanced visibility and control of applications, users and content at high throughput speeds” and features “dedicated computing and programmable hardware resources assigned to networking, security, signature matching and management functions ensure predictable performance.” It was awarded under the statewide contracts schedule.
  • “PA-200 Lab Unit Renewal Service Bundle (Threat Prevention, PANDB URL Filtering, GlobalProtect, WildFire, Standard Support),” a one-year contract that, according to an online explainer, “protects your network against these threats by providing multiple layers of prevention, confronting threats at each phase of the attack. The Threat Prevention subscription protects the network from advanced threats by identifying and scanning all traffic — applications, users, and content across all ports and protocols.” The contract, for $136,693, was awarded to ENS-Inc through the statewide contracts schedule.
Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.