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Assembly hears digital services warning: cloud records storage could rise sharply without options
Summary
Digital Services staff told the Assembly Finance Committee that growth in video and high-density records has driven a sharp projected increase in cloud storage costs for the borough's records-management system and presented short-term and multi-year options for limiting a forecasted rise.
Digital Services managers told the Assembly Finance Committee that growth in video, public records and scanned high-density files has driven a rapid rise in cloud storage needs for the borough's records management (Civic Engage/CivicRec) system and could push related costs substantially higher over the next few years.
The department said the emergency communications reserve currently has a $244,000 balance and that staff are asking the assembly to add $30,000 back into that reserve after an earlier appropriation of about $178,000 for a system refresh. Technology managers described an ongoing refresh and said the reserve target is roughly $300,000.
Digital Services staff said the borough's records-management platform has accumulated roughly 2.5 terabytes of data and that recent additions of video and similar high-density media are increasing storage needs quickly. "The addition of video and other high density data has almost doubled in a year what has taken 20 years to accrue," Technology Support Manager Stoyan Ivanoff said. He and other staff told the committee they were pursuing options to reduce future costs, including hybrid on-premises/cloud configurations and storage-management changes with the vendor.
John Tragus, information-integration lead, told the committee storage growth projections provided by the vendor showed a potential multi-year increase that could reach roughly $200,000 per year in the near term and grow further toward estimates the department has been given of up to about $1 million annually if no changes are made. Tragus said the department will bring amendment options to the assembly meeting on Saturday with possible mitigations including on-site storage, hybrid models or negotiated changes to what is retained in the hosted system.
Separately, Digital Services asked the committee to approve a contribution of $50,000 in the IT infrastructure multi-year program to replace critical server and switch infrastructure and reported a current IT infrastructure sustainment reserve balance of about $1.3 million. The department also described a planned amendment that would reduce a proposed cloud-storage line item and said staff are continuing to refine options in advance of a Saturday workshop.
Why it matters: the borough retains official video and meeting records under a 10-year retention policy. Rapid growth in video and other records can multiply hosting costs, creating pressure on department budgets or requiring decisions about what to keep on hosted vendor platforms versus on-site storage.
Department officials said they will return with specific amendment language and cost comparisons; no final policy decision was taken at the work session.
Ending: The assembly scheduled follow-up discussion and amendment options for the upcoming Saturday meeting; Digital Services staff said they will provide more detailed cost and option papers before that session.
