The Office of Enterprise Technology Services presented its 2025 legislative budget package to the Information Technology Steering Committee on Jan. 14, asking for new and renewed funding for enterprise software licenses, cybersecurity, telecommunications maintenance and infrastructure migration.

Office of Enterprise Technology Services staff member Christine Sekuti opened the presentation and said the request would cover a five‑year move from Microsoft G3 to G5 enterprise subscriptions: “This license includes phone capability through Teams and all the added benefits of cybersecurity, AI readiness, and data analytics,” Sekuti said, adding that the license “does not include Copilot itself.”

Why it matters: ETS said the G5 move and other items are intended to support hybrid work and to modernize state systems, help meet federal data requirements and reduce operational risk. The package is intended to be included in the state administrative budget packet and to come to the legislature through the normal budget process.

Key items included in the ETS request
- Microsoft enterprise agreement (G5): funding to move enterprise licenses from G3 to G5 and to fund five years of the subscription; agencies currently using Teams phone functionality were cited as an example of use cases that benefit from the upgrade. The G5 request does not include purchasing Copilot.
- Cybersecurity risk mitigation: funds to strengthen the state’s cybersecurity program, close critical technology gaps, improve resilience of government services and help satisfy federal requirements tied to data and funding. ETS described this as programmatic funding for mitigations and said cyber insurance is purchased centrally by another division and that ETS’s work is intended to reduce risk and liability.
- High‑wind telecommunications system maintenance and warranty: funds to operate and maintain radio towers across the state that support emergency responders, including towers that support Maui and other islands.
- Adobe enterprise license renewal: an annual request; ETS reported the Adobe renewal is an additional $450,000 in the package.
- Advisory services: funding for best‑practice research and external advisory work to support strategic planning, consolidation updates and operational models for state IT (cybersecurity, data/AI, enterprise strategies).
- Data‑center decommission and migration: $1,600,000 requested to plan and migrate legacy infrastructure out of the Kalani Moku data center and decommission aging systems.
- Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) for the enterprise financial system (EFS) modernization: first‑year funding requested to support IV&V for the EFS procurement/implementation effort; ETS said future years would include ongoing IV&V support as the EFS moves to operations.
- Microsoft cloud backup and disaster recovery: funding requested to preserve business continuity and state data integrity; ETS warned that without cloud backup funding the state would accept higher data‑loss risk and potential impacts to cyber liability insurance premiums.
- Data and AI office, AI risk management tool, geospatial licensing renewal and digitization work: a bundled request to build capacity for data governance, data sharing and AI risk management; part of the package also covers converting paper control manuals to digital copies for resiliency and knowledge transfer.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about allocation and oversight. Committee member Michael Nishida asked whether the cybersecurity request specified line items and whether it duplicated other central insurance costs; Sekuti replied that cyber insurance is centrally purchased and ETS’s goal is mitigation, not duplicative insurance purchases. Committee member Bill Kumagai asked how the Microsoft license costs would be allocated if license counts change; ETS staff said they conservatively estimate license demand by surveying departments and noted the current agreement is sized up to 14,500 licenses and is revisited annually.

What ETS did not specify: the presentation included dollar figures for some items but not all. IV&V and some advisory services were described conceptually; specific line‑item amounts for those items were either not specified or were described as first‑year requests with later years to be asked for as work proceeds.

Next steps: ETS will carry the package into the administrative budget packet and engage with the legislature. Committee members asked for follow‑up detail on IV&V methodology, license allocation and program specifics.

Ending: ETS staff said the requests are intended to be “a good start” toward enterprise modernization and increased resiliency; the package will move through attorney and budget review and then to the legislature as part of the regular budget process.