CC MEETING: January 20, 2026
DATE: December 17, 2025
TO: Erin Rinehart, City Manager
FROM: Chris Chiancone, Chief Information Officer
Chrystal Davis, Assistant City Manager
Title
Consider Authorizing The City Manager To Enter Into An Agreement With Freeit Data Solutions, Through Texas DIR Purchasing Cooperative, For The Purchase Of Server And Backup Hardware In An Amount Not To Exceed $1,000,000.00 For The First Year And $300,000.00 Annually For The Remainder Of The Term For A Total Not To Exceed Amount Of $2,500,000.00.
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BACKGROUND:
The City of Carrollton has established a regular refresh cycle of network and server infrastructure hardware to maintain performance, security, and scalability. Older network and server equipment may no longer receive firmware or software updates, leaving it vulnerable to cyberattacks. Compliance with regulatory standards such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and CJIS require up-to-date security measures and patched gear, as well. The Information Technology Department's Strategic Business Plan also lays out modernization and adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and other network and server infrastructure related goals. With this refresh, we will be able to complete more self-hosted and private AI/ML related projects to protect the security and confidentiality of the City's data which many regulatory requirements prohibit from going into popularly available public systems (ie. ChatGPT). Additionally, this server and backup refresh will be replacing the hardware in the city hall lower level data center, relocating to our off-site data center through the interlocal agreement executed with the City of Celina for shared data center space now that redundant connectivity to this location has been established through the fiber network project.
The IT Department shopped the cooperative agreements to source the best pricing for server and backup hardware. The...
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