Board approves $149,074 IT purchase to replace Saline County virtual server environment

Saline County commissioners on June 10 approved a purchase using an awarded state cybersecurity grant to replace the county’s virtual server environment, selecting the recommended option priced at $149,074.87.

Lauren Humphrey, director of information technology, said the county received $151,000 from the Kansas State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program to replace an aging environment that currently runs on six physical servers, four data-center switches and a single storage array. Humphrey presented four vendor options obtained through state contracts and recommended option 2, which uses HPE hosts, Dell switches and a Nimble storage array from Eagle Technologies for $149,074.87; the quote includes five years of maintenance.

Humphrey said the equipment will be purchased from equipment-reserve funds and then reimbursed by the state grant, meaning there is no immediate net impact on the county’s operating budget. She said current annual maintenance costs for the existing environment are roughly $1,516,000 (as stated in the packet); replacing the environment with a five-year bundled maintenance quote should reduce recurring maintenance pressure for the next five years. The IT director said the purchase will replace the primary host and the disaster-recovery storage currently sent to the offsite ‘doctor site.’

A commissioner moved to approve RFA 20 25-84, option 2; the motion passed on a voice vote. Humphrey said staff hopes to return in five years to procure a replacement environment under a similar maintenance bundle.