Naples (Fla.) CIO Envisions a Strong City IT Environment

STATETECH: What are the current IT priorities and near-term milestones for Naples when it comes to the city’s tech infrastructure?

HUNTER: We are really on a theme of resiliency and redundancy, looking to first replace some of our aging equipment with current technology. We also want to ensure we have programs funded for the future to maintain their vitality. We’re building data redundancy into our data center approach. We’re establishing a mirror of our primary data center. Again, resiliency runs through several priorities that we have across telecommunications in our fiber network and, generally speaking, our data center approach, including right down to the data center’s air conditioning system.

STATETECH: Given that Naples faces threats from hurricanes, does that affect your decisions regarding resiliency?

HUNTER: Before I joined this call, I was looking at the forecast for the next system that’s in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t mean to focus on hurricane-related topics, but it is a truth of where we are. When I got here, one of the things that we noticed was that for a long time there had not been significant investment in the IT space. Not only was the equipment older, but we didn’t have good backup processes. We didn’t have answers for what happens to our main data center and such in an emergency. And so, resiliency is really much more than a hurricane prep item. We could face a man-made issue. It could just be a fault with a computer. It could be a cybersecurity event. It’s a prudent practice from an IT perspective to build redundancy into your solutions.

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STATETECH: Has that meant more investment in cloud?

HUNTER: Like many cities, we’re hybrid. We keep stuff that is very data-intensive on-premises. When we look at the costs of the cloud for us, it’s the cost of shipping large amounts of data to and from the cloud. We maintain our main file stores, for example, onsite. And then, where it makes sense, we evaluate solutions to move them to the cloud. As opportunities present themselves, we weigh the pros and cons of keeping something on-premises versus moving it into the cloud. We are beginning to move more things to the cloud; I think it’s a natural progression.

We are moving into cloud for an increasing number of services. By moving an application into the cloud, we gain the expertise of the business that supports that application and we gain scalable infrastructure to support it.

Cloud applications are not impervious to cyberattacks, of course. They get hit all the time. But the good news is that you can invest in multiple cloud environments. An attack may not take down your entire infrastructure. You spread your risk throughout multiple clouds.

We choose to keep some stuff locally, such as security camera footage. We keep that closer because the data storage and data transmission costs associated with that are very high. We keep some important data, including planning documents required by the city clerk, close as well for proximity reasons.

STATETECH: How do you maximize your budget to achieve your goals?

HUNTER: I’m very fortunate. The IT team here in the city of Naples is very cost-conscious. When we have an item that requires investment, like many other municipalities, we seek options in terms of what that solution should look like, not only in cost, but in our architecture. We’ve taken a couple of projects and used other departments in the city to help avoid some of the vendor costs. That’s helped us. Over the past year, we received a state grant, which helped us advance our strategy in some areas by three years or so.

STATETECH: Can you tell us a little more about that funding?

HUNTER: In April, the city was fortunate enough to receive a $828,000 grant from the state and put that toward cybersecurity initiatives. Of course, the IT team had to justify it by explaining where we were going to invest and our cost-effective approach to doing the work. We argued that it was indeed a prudent investment. The grant helped us significantly. With a small team, it took a lot of our resources to be able to implement everything that came along with that funding. But ultimately, we’re in a much better place.

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STATETECH: Are you where you want to be when it comes to your current infrastructure posture?

HUNTER: We’re not where we want to be. But in the past couple of years, with support from the city manager, the mayor and the council, we’ve made tremendous strides in modernizing our infrastructure. The grant helped us go a long way toward that. That came with physical hardware we were able to deploy to replace aging infrastructure. We still have a lot to do, but that was a great start. With continued support from the senior leadership team, we’ll continue to make great progress.