Craven County approves $118,833 budget amendment to migrate aging AS/400 server to cloud

Craven County commissioners on Sept. 2 approved a budget amendment of $118,833 to support a cloud migration of the county's long-running AS/400 mainframe environment.

Steve Bennett, representing information technology, told the board the AS/400 server has hosted legacy data for finance, human resources, planning, tax, the sheriff's office and social services for about 20 years and that the existing hardware has reached end of life. Bennett said the county will move the legacy system to the cloud to preserve historical records and to reduce the higher cost of maintaining the aging hardware.

Bennett said the cloud transition is a temporary preservation step while the county modernizes systems; backups and local copies will be maintained and the cloud contract is subject to procurement rules the presenter identified as "Gatsby 96 rules." The board voted by roll call to approve the budget amendment.

Why it matters: The AS/400 contains longstanding records the county says must be preserved. Moving the environment to a supported hosting arrangement is intended to ensure data availability and resiliency while the county transitions to more modern systems.

Details and next steps: The board approved $118,833 to fund the transition. Bennett said the county maintains backups and a contract to guarantee uptime and resiliency; staff will proceed with the cloud migration and return if additional approvals are required.