Justin Parks, Dickinson County's IT director, told the Board of County Commissioners that key server hardware used for county-wide systems is reaching end of life and that replacement is necessary to preserve critical services including 9-1-1, Tyler records software and other county applications.

Parks showed photos of existing server racks and shared two written quotations. Dell's hardware-only quote for replacement equipment was approximately $288,000; Parks said his earlier total estimate had included licensing and migration and had been near $340,000. Parks also presented a Lenovo quote obtained through vendor contacts that offered comparable equipment plus on-site migration services for $181,420.

"If we went with the Lenovo solution, $181,420. That is a $100,000 less than the Dell quote for just hardware," Parks said. He explained that the Lenovo price included installation and data migration services, and that vendor-managed migration reduces the county's liability for potential data or service disruptions.

Parks described the hardware as host servers and external storage arrays that support about 54 virtual machines running county services; the host configuration provides redundancy so that if one server is taken down the other continues service. He said the county had been setting aside capital for server upgrades over recent years and that the capital outlay fund balance could cover the purchase in the current year, but asked commissioners to consider the timing and to allow staff to provide additional fiscal analysis.

Commissioners asked for more detail on capital balances, migration risk and schedule. Parks said Lenovo indicated a delivery timeline that would allow a September purchase; he recommended adding the item to a future regular meeting agenda and a work session to give staff time to prepare a full funding and migration plan. Commissioners directed staff to return next week with additional financial information and to include the server replacement as an agenda item for the next regular meeting.