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Whitefish IT director outlines cloud-first plan, says on-site server replacement would be costly
Summary
IT Director Chris Hunt told council that moving documents to cloud storage with Microsoft Purview will be more cost-effective than replacing local servers, which were priced near $294,000 for a 10 TB unit; he warned about backup and licensing needs.
City IT Director Chris Hunt told the council the city currently stores documents in multiple local and cloud locations, and that the immediate challenge is migrating aging local storage into the cloud. Hunt said the city has about five terabytes of cloud storage before the city must pay for more, and that many vendors now have price volatility tied to data-center demand.
Hunt described Microsoft Purview as a tool to classify documents and apply automated retention schedules that issue 30‑day deletion notices, reducing the need for continual manual review. He emphasized the need for a secondary backup location beyond Microsoft's storage to guard against ransomware and data loss. "So we decided that's a little too much money for the city to be paying and we can stretch $294,000 over numerous years, and have a lot more cloud storage," he said when comparing server replacement to cloud costs. Councilors asked about licensing coverage for frontline employees and the day‑to‑day operational impacts of retaining records for longer periods.
The council voted on a related resolution that authorizes staff to destroy records meeting Schedule 8 retention periods; staff will return with implementation details and cost analyses for longer electronic retention if the council requests it.
