CITY MANAGER AUTHORITY PROCUREMENT AWARDS
ACTION REQUESTED:
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Approve the award of Cooperative Procurement 26-033, CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Premium Software, to CDW-G for an amount not to exceed $97,319.36 and for a one-year term
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DEPARTMENT: Information Technology
SUBMITTED BY: Jacqueline Nguyen, Director
BACKGROUND:
A key tool in the cyber security portfolio of the Information Technology (IT) Department is endpoint protection software that runs on all personal computers managed by the IT Department. The IT Department regularly researches and evaluates other potential endpoint protection software. In 2022, the IT Department deployed the endpoint protection software, CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Premium (Falcon). It provided protections and services far beyond the solution in place at the time and continues to outperform its competitors. Falcon is the endpoint protection which includes anti-virus software for all personal computers deployed and managed by the IT Department.
Falcon critical capabilities include:
• Falcon Prevent
Falcon Prevent is a cloud-native, next-generation antivirus solution that protects against all types of attacks from commodity malware to sophisticated attacks - even when offline. Falcon Prevent is not solely signature based but also assesses application behavior. It includes access to CrowdStrike’s Indicator of Compromise (IOC) feed to evaluate threats against other devices.
• Falcon Insight Endpoint and Detection and Response (EDR)
EDR provides IT and Security personnel with actionable and timely information on the behaviors of computers and surrounding devices to understand if a perceived event or threat is normal behavior or malicious. EDR provides a path to understand the root cause of security events that involve or originate from protected computers. EDR provides automated indicators of compromise (IOC).
• Falcon OverWatch
OverWatch is comprised of a team of cross-disciplinary specialists at CrowdStrike Threat Intelligence that provides managed threat, hunting available 24x7x365, OverWatch investigations and advises on sophisticated threat activity in customer environments. OverWatch includes a cyber security management portal that enables immediate software update/patching to vulnerable computers.
• Falcon Threat Graph
Threat Graph predicts and prevents modern threats in real time by using sets of endpoint telemetry, threat intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) analytics. This goes beyond traditional anti-virus detection and rule-based blocking. This solution is updated daily by the ongoing cataloging and analyzing of four-trillion events daily.
• Falcon Device
Enables safe and accountable usage of USB devices across the organization.
• Firewall Management
Enhances protection from network threats by eliminating the visibility gaps and complexity of host firewalls. Simplifies management of host firewalls for IT.
• Falcon Discover
Provides visibility into devices, users, and applications to enable quick identification and elimination of malicious or noncompliant activity. Monitors application usage, system inventory, and user behaviors in real-time.
• Falcon Identity Protection
Extends detection and response to identity-based attacks by monitoring authentication activity across Active Directory. Enables early detection of credential misuse, lateral movement and privilege escalation, and allows containment at identity level and not just the endpoint.
• Automatic remediation workflow triggers with integrated notification to IT staff.
• Expert consultants available in real-time as a support service.
DISCUSSION:
Crowdstrike has been a vital tool in the City’s cybersecurity position and continues to perform well. In addition to the features we’ve utilized from this security suite, we have added Falcon Identity Protection in this procurement as an additional level of protection.
Staff has identified an approved cooperative contract, Omnia Mesa 2024056-01 - Gov (2024056-01) through CDW-G, for the procurement of the CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Premium.
The term is for one year from February 9, 2026, through February 8, 2027.
FISCAL IMPACT:
CIP #: N/A
CrowdStrike will be charged to the Software and Hardware Maintenance account listed below. The 2026 Budget includes $85,000 for this expense. The award exceeds the amount budgeted by $12,319.36. Staff will monitor spending to ensure it remains within the total approved budget.
|
Account Number |
Fund Description |
Total Budget |
|
16101100-531312 |
General Fund |
$3,910,675 |