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Sherwood IT and broadband plan upgrades, Copilot pilot and cybersecurity alignment among priorities
Summary
Sherwood’s IT director told the budget committee the department will focus on back‑end infrastructure replacements, a PC refresh cycle, licensing changes (Microsoft/Copilot), cautious AI pilot use, and a gap analysis to align cybersecurity practices with standards and insurance requirements.
Sherwood’s information‑technology presentation to the budget committee emphasized infrastructure replacement, software licensing rationalization and a cautious rollout of AI tools tied to data‑security safeguards.
IT Director Brad Crawford (presenting as Brad) said major planned projects include replacing end‑of‑life storage and virtualization infrastructure, a PC refresh cycle in 2026–27, and raising licensing levels for Microsoft products that staff expect will allow the city to retire more expensive third‑party tools. Crawford said the city budget includes modest funding for post‑go‑live website refinement and for a formalized AI (Copilot) policy and initial licensing.
Cybersecurity and insurance
Crawford said staff have started a gap analysis against a federal cybersecurity standard (e.g., NIST) and that the city plans to align policies and controls with that standard, in part to ensure compliance with cyber‑insurance requirements. He said small staffing levels limit the city’s ability to meet all control objectives immediately and that the objective is to build policy and program maturity to reduce insurance and operational risk.
Broadband and staffing
Crawford and the city manager noted IT and Sherwood Broadband responsibilities are increasingly intertwined; Crawford said he splits his time about 50/50 between IT and broadband functions and that bringing those teams together for shared support and networking tasks is a logical approach as broadband subscriber support needs increase.
AI pilot and guardrails
The city will pilot Microsoft Copilot and other AI tools under controlled conditions; staff said Copilot can be used for drafting non‑confidential material, and the city will not permit open‑internet models to access proprietary data without further controls. The initial rollout will include policy, training and limited licensing, with exploration of internally hosted models in the future.
Ending
Crawford said the IT plan is a pragmatic mix of catch‑up infrastructure replacement and selective new capabilities that should create operational efficiency without exposing the city to unmanaged security risk.
