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IT staff warn server and cybersecurity costs have jumped, complicating budgeting
Summary
County IT staff told the workshop that server, firewall and other IT hardware costs have risen markedly—examples cited included servers around $25,000 and firewalls rising to about $7,500—making accurate tech budgeting difficult.
An IT staff member outlined sharply rising technology costs, saying recently procured servers now run near $25,000 apiece and that firewall and cybersecurity hardware have also jumped. "A firewall that we bought would have bought last year is $3 to this year's $7,500," the staff member said, using those figures to illustrate how little forecasting uncertainty exists in IT procurement today.
The staff member said the county is replacing servers installed roughly 10 years ago and has run out of space, which forces investment in new storage and security infrastructure. Commissioners acknowledged the inflationary pressure and supply-demand impacts from large data centers, and asked the IT team to quantify needs and cost scenarios for upcoming workshops so they can be prioritized against other department requests.
No IT-specific procurements were approved at this meeting; staff will return with cost estimates and prioritization recommendations.
