Local area network (LAN), phone and hardware failures have prevented employees from using city computers to access emails sent from outside city hall and from taking calls during tax season, according to city officials and past reports. Public Service Director John Highman said upgrades were "virtually mandatory."
He and Patrick Barton, the city's information technology director, presented the news to city council on Monday. Although council members authorized the work earlier this year, they did so with an estimate of $800,000.
"The goal here is to make sure we always remain on the same page," Highman told them.
The cost increased because it was determined that building a new network would be easier than repairing the existing one, Barton said.
A city network engineer built the LAN, which connects computers across several locations in Canton, through "trial and error." Barton said departments and equipment were added incrementally to the network over the past 30 years, creating a tangled system.
"I say this with all respect to him, but we're essentially sitting on a house of cards," he said.
The city will choose a consultant to build the LAN and standardize equipment such as routers for an estimated $450,000. Barton said installation will start at city hall and should be done by early September.
The phone system, which is expected to cost less than the initial $700,000 estimate, relies on the network and will be installed in buildings after the LAN. A phone vendor has yet to be chosen.
Agile Networks provides the city's wide area network (WAN) and connections between buildings, which will be used for the LAN. Barton said the city switched from AT&T to Agile Networks in recent months because Agile offered more bandwidth at a lower cost.
Councilman John Mariol II, D-7, spoke Monday in support of the changes detailed by Barton.
"I don't know quite exactly what he's talking about, but I can definitely tell he knows what he's talking about," he said.
In response to questions from other council members, Barton said the work will solve problems that led to a network outage earlier this year. It also prepares the city to automate processes or use data centers, commonly referred to as "the cloud," in the future.
"This'll essentially take care of us for the next 15 years before we have to even look at upgrading equipment," Barton said.
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