Commissioners authorize county manager to execute expedited IT infrastructure replacement to avoid rising costs

Lee County commissioners on Feb. 16 authorized the county manager to sign contracts, approve purchase orders and accept bids for a countywide IT infrastructure migration outside normal financial thresholds, after a presentation from the county’s IT team and consulting partner Davenport Group.

Brandon Cole, chief executive officer at Davenport Group, described the county's current VxRail (hyperconverged) environment and explained that the county faces an upcoming VMware software renewal (July 2026) and hardware end-of-support (September 2027). He told the board the firm’s proposed move to a traditional server/storage/network architecture would lower the five-year total cost of ownership to an estimated $1.4 million and reduce annual licensing costs; "the proposed solution that we're putting together here is roughly a savings of $350,000," Cole said during the presentation.

Cole and county IT staff said vendor supply constraints and month-over-month hardware price increases make earlier procurement advantageous. The proposed plan would require a large up-front payment this fiscal year rather than spreading costs over multiple years; staff and the presenter said buying now could avoid steep licensing and hardware price increases.

Following Q&A about which county systems run on the platform (financial and payroll systems, public safety, telephony, directory services, access control, and data storage for departments and the library), Commissioner 4 moved to authorize the county manager to execute contracts and approve related procurement decisions outside typical policy thresholds, provided the manager keeps the board updated on approvals outside normal thresholds. The board approved the motion by voice vote.

The authorization permits staff to move quickly on procurement to manage pricing volatility; the board was told a formal budget amendment would be returned once final costs are known to fund the upfront purchase rather than a lease. Additional licensing costs outside this infrastructure purchase (for example, Microsoft licensing) will continue to be brought to the board separately.

Next steps: county manager will coordinate procurement and return to the board with a budget amendment and ongoing project updates.