At a midday budget briefing the county's IT vendor (5 Nines) presented recommended projects and cost drivers for the coming year and explained why certain enterprise licenses and security upgrades are time sensitive.

Key recommendations and rationale:
- VMware licensing vs Hyper‑V: Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has prompted a large increase in renewal costs tied to a new per‑core minimum (72 cores). 5 Nines recommended migrating the county virtualization stack to Microsoft Hyper‑V to avoid an upcoming VMware renewal that would cost several thousand dollars as a baseline. The vendor said Hyper‑V licensing is perpetual and usually carries lower recurring licensing costs for smaller clients.
- Microsoft 365 (Office) migration: The vendor recommended migrating desktop Office installations from unmanaged "box" copies (Office 2013) to Microsoft 365 Business Standard licenses for users. Projected per‑user license cost was cited (example $13.13/month in the vendor's quote), and staff will audit the current user list (142 mailboxes appears in the tenant) to reduce unnecessary licenses before purchase.
- Email authentication (DMARC): The vendor recommended implementing DMARC on the county domain to prevent spoofing and to avoid automatic rejections by providers that enforce DMARC. The implementation project includes an initial deployment and monitoring period; ongoing service is billed monthly per domain.
- Cloudflare and VPN replacement: To replace an aging VPN and reduce account lockouts and credential‑spray attacks, the vendor proposed Cloudflare-based protections and single‑sign‑on improvements; one-time implementation and monthly costs are pending final quote.
- End‑of‑life devices and servers: 5 Nines identified firewalls, access points and a Windows Server 2016 instance that will reach end of service in 2026–2027; they recommended scheduling those replacements in the multi‑year capital plan.

Board reaction: Commissioners asked for a clear single‑year budget table that lists the vendor's recommended projects, one‑time implementation costs, and recurring monthly charges. The IT team will audit the Microsoft tenant to identify unused mailboxes and reduce the number of licenses quoted. Commissioners discussed procurement options, Dell premier pricing, and the need to require county purchases to be coordinated with IT so devices are provisioned and secured before use.

Why it matters: The recommendations address immediate security threats (credential spraying, spoofed email) and anticipated license‑cost shocks from vendor consolidation. Moving to managed Microsoft 365 licensing and modern email authentication could improve security, reduce administrative friction, and prevent sudden large license renewals.

Next steps: 5 Nines will provide an itemized budget proposal with exact counts and line items; county departments will audit user lists and identify unnecessary mailboxes so the board can approve a targeted set of licenses and projects during the regular budget process.