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3 <br />Orange County Information Technologies <br />our financial audit security requirements and adopted best practices for technology <br />security. This initiative greatly reduces Orange County's exposure for unauthorized <br />access, critical system exploits and misuse of County resources. <br />By providing wireless access points at County meeting areas through commercial carriers <br />and not through the County network, Orange County has further eliminated security risks <br />associated with intermingling County network traffic with uncontrolled public traffic. <br />Cost Containment <br />Orange County has adopted a series of cross-departmental policies resulting in close <br />scrutiny of technology purchases, including analysis of sustaining costs and <br />standardization on enterprise technologies. Information Technologies and the Budget <br />and Purchasing functions, have established purchasing processes that ensure the most <br />cost-effective technology solutions are place. <br />All technology projects are carefully evaluated to ensure they conform to established <br />County technology standards, from which economies of scale in support can be realized. <br />The computer allocation policy now in place, ensures the pool of computers in use <br />throughout the County is manageable in size and appropriate to meet the needs of all <br />County staff. <br />Network Improvements <br />Orange County has made significant strides in upgrading critical parts of the County <br />network. Since 2006, we have upgraded the network connection to Southern Human <br />Services Center, upgraded the County's Internet connection, upgraded the central <br />library's public Internet circuit and provisioned high speed network connectivity for the <br />Seymour Center and the Gateway building. <br />As a result of these upgrades, more County staff have faster access to applications, data <br />can more efficiently be shared while hardware can be centralized and in some cases, <br />redundancies eliminated. This high speed access also allows IT to diagnose desktop <br />problems remotely, which has greatly reduced IT's reliance on site visits, while providing <br />quicker resolution times for County staff encountering computer problems. <br />With approximately 75% of all County computers on high speed fiber optic cabling, <br />Orange County has expanded capabilities to use powerful applications, share data across <br />the enterprise and provide fast and reliable access to County applications for staff. <br />Hardware Replacements <br />With strong capital support, Orange County has nearly caught up to its 4 year <br />replacement cycle. In the past two years, the County has replaced 35% of its oldest <br />computers, some of which were 7 and even 8 years old. This leaves us with a more <br />modern fleet of PCs, the oldest of which are now some 6 years old. The more modern <br />equipment requires less support and is able to operate the newer software applications <br />that many departments require. <br />Page 2 6/12/2008 <br />