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City workshop weighs software upgrades, GIS cloud migration and data security
Summary
Officials and staff at a budget workshop discussed moving GIS and other systems to cloud-based subscriptions, budgeting a $10,000 pilot for migration work, and flagged the need for on-site consultant help to avoid data-security risks.
Staff and officials spent part of the budget workshop focused on IT modernization, including migrating GIS and other systems to cloud subscriptions and upgrading backend servers.
An agency official explained the vendor shift: "They have stopped issuing desktop licenses for GIS... anything you need to do to upgrade goes to a cloud based" subscription, and the city has put $10,000 in the budget to "kinda get the ball rolling." The official cautioned that staff capacity is limited and that the city needs a consultant to move in-house data to the cloud without jeopardizing confidentiality.
Committee members pressed for a coordinated citywide approach to software and data storage to avoid departments working "in a vacuum" and to ensure compliance and security. One committee member said the city should evaluate which software "we'll be using as a city to make sure... it is... compliant" before departments adopt disparate tools.
Staff also clarified the distinction between recurring service contracts and capital investments: consulting and subscription fees are in operating lines while the physical server purchase is budgeted under fixed assets. The server hardware for a full systems upgrade is listed at about $111,000 in the capital section.
