Council probes device replacement cycle and software licensing increases in TEBS budget

TEBS presented a proposed increase in device client management (DCM) funding from $16.1 million to $18.1 million to cover countywide licensing and hardware costs. Staff said the $2 million increase is made up of four line items (detailed in the packet) and urged the committee to examine the necessity of each.

Council members questioned rising recurring cloud-license costs—what staff described as the transition from one-time software purchases to recurring cloud licenses that must be funded annually. Dr. Torregas described the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and noted that some increases were already negotiated across multi-year contracts.

On PC replacement, TEBS said about 50% of county machines have been migrated to Windows 11 and recommended keeping a contingency for extended Windows 10 support while the transition continues. Council members asked for a comparative analysis showing the differences in maintenance and support costs for 5-, 6- and 7-year replacement cycles, and asked TEBS to provide historical data comparing the prior seven-year cycle to the current five-year cycle.

TEBS also flagged a $113,300 Microsoft SQL compliance payment to address non-compliance on server licenses; staff said there is no choice but to pay to come into compliance.

Next steps: TEBS agreed to prioritize and return with the requested DCM line-item justifications and a cost-comparison analysis of device replacement cycles to help the council weigh short-term savings against longer-term maintenance and emergency replacement costs.