Tooele County's IT director described critical infrastructure needs and proposed a multiyear contract approach to reduce long-term costs. Scott Persons said the server-room uninterruptible power supply (UPS) must be replaced this year because the vendor that supported parts has ceased operations and spare parts are exhausted; the UPS maintains critical systems during power events until backup generators engage.

Persons presented a recommendation to prepay an upgraded Palo Alto firewall/security-services package at an upfront cost of a little over $600,000; he said that structure would save roughly $400,000 over three years compared with annual renewals at rising rates. He also reported negotiating multiyear terms on Cisco networking that will freeze rates and yield about a 27% savings over five years.

The director said Veeam backup software appears likely to need an upgrade this year (approximate cost shown in capital planning at about $75,000) and that roughly 11,000 county-managed devices are protected behind the county's perimeter infrastructure. He reported the county saw thousands of attempted attacks per day earlier in the year and that email and other malicious traffic remain a continuous threat.

Persons recommended prioritizing the server-room UPS and the Palo Alto contract to secure essential services this budget cycle and to defer some other capital projects until contract savings are realized.