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Wichita approves $216,000 DataEdge storage contract; public raises cybersecurity and audit questions
Summary
The council approved a one-time $216,000 capital purchase for on-premise network-attached mass storage to replace end-of-life arrays; public commenters asked for evidence of required security audits, geographic redundancy and procurement competitive process.
The Wichita City Council approved a capital purchase and contract with DataEdge on July 12 to replace the city's end-of-life storage array, an on-premise network-attached storage enclosure described by IT Director Mike Mader (speaker 22) as a five-year capital investment with lower long-term operating cost than cloud alternatives. The one-time equipment cost presented to the council was $216,000 plus modest ongoing software/support fees in subsequent years.
Mader told the council the array supports organization-wide data including some criminal-justice evidence and must meet applicable CJIS standards. He said on-premise equipment provides predictable support and capacity that can grow with city needs. "These are fairly complex systems... not just servers," he said, asking the council to approve the contract from the equipment-replacement fund.
In public comment, cybersecurity expert Vince Hancock asked whether the primary and secondary units would be geographically diverse, whether the procurement had been competitively bid, and whether required audits (FBI/KBI) have occurred and been recorded. Mader and staff answered that the purchase is budgeted and supported, that some public-safety video remains in cloud systems while on-premise storage is used for other datasets, and that automation and records-audit practices are being strengthened.
The council approved the DataEdge contract 7-0. Council members asked IT to follow best practices for disaster recovery, retention policies and to continue work on data-cleaning/retention automation and staff phishing training.
