By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County will pay a maximum of $45,000 for the upgrade of several servers vital to county functions. Information Technology Director Dereck Hollingshead presented to the Barton County Commission Tuesday morning before moving forward on a bid from SHI.
"We have seven servers that are needing to have some work done to them," he said. "Three have outstanding or older operating systems that need to be upgraded, then the rest are running out of space."
Hollingshead said SHI submitted the lone full bid for the project, which is just an estimate at this time. Hollingshead expects additional costs for software support, including from INTERPOL on the law enforcement side, but all of those costs will remain under $45,000 total. All the servers impacted are housed inside the Barton County Communications facility.
"911 is where our internet comes in," said Hollingshead. "They have a backup generator that is Instant On so, in the event we have an emergency, 911 is without any interruption. That's what made moving over here a little easier for our department as well, because we did not move servers."
Microsoft will stop making software updates and patches on the old equipment in October, elevating security risks on those servers. The Ellinwood and Great Bend police departments will reimburse the county for a portion of the costs associated with law enforcement software updates.