Franklin County votes to buy new courthouse server as IT vendor warns of migration costs

Franklin County commissioners approved a purchase to replace an aging courthouse server after IT staff warned industrywide price increases and new licensing requirements will raise costs.

The IT specialist told the commission the county’s current server, installed in April 2020, is out of warranty and that Harris, the vendor for the county’s recording software, will require new, higher system specs after a fourth-quarter upgrade. The specialist said the move from VMware (previously free) to a licensed Microsoft server operating system, plus hardware and migration labor, is driving the cost: “I estimate for Franklin County, it’ll probably take about five weeks” of after-hours work to migrate servers, and the base cost to bring servers up to the required configuration is about $88,000, according to the packet presented to commissioners.

Commissioners discussed options to split payments across two fiscal years, mirroring approaches taken in neighboring counties. One commissioner urged budgeting in advance for five-year replacement cycles to avoid sudden large expenditures. The IT specialist said warranty coverage and perpetual licensing should limit hidden costs for five years, but warned lead times for delivery are now long and that failures could cause significant downtime.

After discussion about budget timing and alternatives, a commissioner moved to purchase a new server from the recommended vendor and authorize the chair to sign the purchase agreement after review; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote. The board instructed staff to bring the final contract back for signature and to coordinate the migration schedule to minimize outages.

The county’s packet notes migration steps, expected labor and compatibility work required for the court-recording software. No specific vendor contract number or delivery date was included in the discussion; the IT specialist said shipping lead times for some peer counties’ orders were running close to a month.

Next steps: staff will finalize the purchase agreement, confirm delivery lead times, and schedule the migration work to occur after-hours with progress reports to the commissioners.