Server, storage, and network equipment has an industry replacement best practice of 3-5 years. The current age of our servers and storage is between 5-10 years old, depending on the device, and is in need of a refresh due to age, capacity, and sporadic hardware failures.

The budgeted replacement project of data center equipment at both locations will:

- Address pressures on current data storage capacity

- Eliminate escalating annual maintenance costs on current equipment

- Add additional site redundancy for business continuity

- Standardize equipment increasing supportability

- Leverage new technology to increase efficiency

- Increase processing performance for current applications

The next projected equipment refresh date will be Q4 of 2022 as the warranty and maintenance will expire at that time. This date will also maintain a consistent 5 year replacement cycle.

The dollar amount requested for replacement has been budgeted since the Q1 2012 purchase of our current storage devices and server purchases previous to 2012. This project will be paid from existing funds within the IT Internal Service Fund and the total is under previously budgeted dollar amounts.

Purchase of new equipment will eliminate an average of $35,000 per year, over the next 5 years, in escalating maintenance costs. Additional  storage purchases would also be required year-to-year to meet growing capacity if not replaced. All new equipment includes a full 5-year maintenance warranty within this dollar request and is sized for 5 year data projections.

Purchasing through LOGIS allows us to leverage previously negotiated best prices through the US Communities National Cooperative Purchasing Program.