Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the It Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Knox County CIO details server relocation, new firewall purchase and 911 phone resiliency
Summary
CIO Trevor told commissioners the county moved city servers to the municipal building, purchased a Ubiquity firewall to improve security, installed battery backups, nearly completed a cloud-based 911 phone system for resiliency, and instituted an SOP for equipment disposal.
Trevor, who introduced himself as Knox County chief information officer, briefed the Board of Commissioners on March 10 on recent county information-technology projects and next steps.
"I'm Trevor. I'm the CIO for Knox County," he said before reporting that the county and city ticket volume was lower than the previous month — "we were down to 264 tickets between the city and the county." Trevor said county technicians completed the relocation of the city's servers to the municipal building on Feb. 21 and that county staff moved the remaining servers out of the county server room over the recent weekend.
Relocating the city's equipment to a purpose-built data center gives the city its own air-conditioned server room, Trevor said, and reduces the county's operational oversight of equipment that is not county-owned. He also said the county purchased a Ubiquity firewall after product demos and research and hoped to complete installation by the end of the month.
On public-safety communications, Trevor said the county is "wrapping up the cloud-based phone system for 911," which will add resiliency and allow dispatching from alternate locations when needed. He described battery backups installed in wiring closets to protect network equipment and phones from power interruptions and said the team recycled about 400 pounds of old electronics during a recent cleanup.
Trevor also said the county developed a standard operating procedure for equipment disposal to ensure drives and data-bearing devices are sanitized before leaving county facilities. He noted ongoing vendor work to integrate phone systems for satellite offices and the sheriff's office, and that county IT will support short-term emergency IT coverage for public health under a limited contract if needed.
Commissioners asked questions about dialing by extension at the sheriff's office, plans for AV and wiring at a future county conference room, cybersecurity posture (including geo-blocking and a zero-trust model) and township-level IT support gaps. Trevor said some townships likely rely on managed-service providers and recommended reviewing local coverage. No formal board action was taken during the update; several IT-related contracts later listed on the consent agenda were approved separately.
