The Starke County Council members and Commissioners talked about immediate IT needs with a consultant Monday night.
The commissioners previously asked IT Director Richard Franks to work with a consultant to get another opinion about server needs for the county. He talked with Kyle Oakley, an IT consultant from Golden Tech in Valparaiso, who said the most immediate need for the county is server software which can be done for a reduced cost of about $14,800 with licensing and labor rather than replace hardware and software at a cost of around $67,000.
Data storage is at a critical level at about 10 percent with the Windows 7 end-of-life on Jan. 14, 2020. Oakley suggested getting to a newer version as soon as possible or else there is an increased risk of security breach.
Oakley also said data reclamation would be possible to increase that storage availability.
An exchange server upgrade was also in the proposal where an end-of-life is expected in Oct. 2020.
A more detailed plan for future IT needs could be done if the county decides to contract with Oakley on a consultant basis. That would be a flat fee of $1,500.
No final decisions were made Monday night. The commissioners will take up the conversation at the beginning of the year.
