Paradise opts to keep its data at home

By Mark Squibb

Paradise council last week voted to purchase new data servers at just over $114,000.

Councillor Larry Vaters explained that servers are the core infrastructure for storing the Town’s information technology (IT).

“To ensure this vital infrastructure is running at it’s best, the equipment is replaced every five years,” said Vaters.

Staff issued a request for proposals (RFP) in July for equipment replacement and implementation. Two companies bid on the work: Open Storage Solutions and Triware Technologies Inc. Staff recommended the contract go to Triware at a cost of $114,944 plus HST.

Council, said Vaters, had budgeted $120,000 for the work in Budget 2024.

Councillor Glen Carew noted that in his line of work, cloud-based servers, which store data virtually in a ‘cloud’ and not on a physical server, are common. He asked whether the Town can use a cloud-based server so as to avoid purchasing physical storage units.

Vaters said staff use cloud-based services in some instances, but the availability of those services does not eliminate the need for physical servers.

“While the Town is open to cloud-based solutions, it is not available with all software and databases that we currently use,” said Vaters. “Cloud solutions and service providers need to be assessed for adequate security measures to ensure proper protection and back up of the Town’s data, disaster recovery processes, as well as software support.”

Vaters added the protection of the Town’s data would be left largely in the hands of third-party providers – many located in the USA—and not staff.

“I don’t think we necessarily want all of our data stored outside the country,” said Vaters.

He added that cloud-based storage can become expensive, and that it was not feasible to overhaul the system at this time.

Council voted unanimously to award the contract for the new servers.