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2 <br /> M E M O R A N D U M <br /> To Rod Visser, Assistant County Manager <br /> From: Keith Brooks, Data Processing Manager <br /> Re Current Status of Data Processing <br /> Date: May 31, 1995 <br /> 1. Equipment History <br /> The County currently has two mainframe systems installed, <br /> a McDonnell Douglas M9255 that was originally installed in 1984, <br /> with a major upgrade in 1989, and an IBM RS6000 530H installed in <br /> July of 1992. The 530H was installed as a replacement for a Prime <br /> P4055 as a way to move into the UNIX environment and solve some of <br /> our networking problems and our connectivity to GIS and/or <br /> Personal Computers. With the 530H, which is a UNIX or .open <br /> architect solution, the County has found many more networking and <br /> connectivity options to choose from. With the Prime, we were <br /> never able to successfully establish a reliable mechanism for <br /> uploading and downloading information between the mainframe and <br /> PCs. The RS6000 has dramatically improved our capability to <br /> accomplish this and to realize efficiencies by making mainframe <br /> databases available for manipulation using PC applications, <br /> instead of creating dual mainframe and PC databases. <br /> Funding for the cost of this 1992 replacement was made <br /> available within the ongoing Data Processing budget by dropping <br /> the maintenance contract on the M9255 (approximately $70,000 per <br /> year) and initiating a third party depot/swap type maintenance. <br /> This generated enough savings over the past three years to pay for <br /> the new IBM 530H and its related maintenance charges with no <br /> increase in the DP operating budget, based on a three year <br /> lease/purchase agreement with IBM. <br /> In 1984 the County had only 12 personal computers. In 1991 the <br /> count had grown to 122- personal computers with 37 printers. The <br /> County currently has 313 personal computers using 147 printers. <br /> There are also 17 personal computer LAN servers which support the <br /> 5 installed and working networks (MCI-Whitted, Economic <br /> Development, Budget/Personnel, Child Support Enforcement, and <br /> Register of Deeds Imaging) . Two more networks (Public Works and <br /> E-Mail) are currently being installed. <br /> All County PCs, until this year, had First Choice word <br /> processing installed at delivery time. At this time, all new PCs <br /> being purchased are WINDOWS-ready 486s. <br />