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Report to the County AdministratorA Year in Review

2010 – 2011AdministrationSystems and ProgrammingTechnical ServicesBusiness Services Group

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Office of the Director

Ken Hightower, Director/CIO

Phone (707) 565-2911 • Fax (707) 565-30092615 Paulin Drive • Santa Rosa, CA 95403

April 22, 2011

Dear County Administrator, Department Heads, County Managers/Supervisors and Staff:

I am very proud to introduce this inaugural issue of Information Systems Department’s (ISD’s) annual report to the County Administrator which, in this case, focuses on the current fiscal year, 2010-11. This annual report is intended to highlight key ISD accomplishments during the year in a summary fashion as well as identifying the major elements of our technology direction for the near future, all designed to support the County’s strategic plan.

Since this is our first edition of the report, we have included additional information on who we are and what we do. In fact, we devote a substantial portion of this initial publication to this end. We’ve taken this approach because many in the County only have a limited understanding of our role, our breadth of services and what we’re up to. Future editions of this report will focus less on who we are and more on “what we’ve done for the County lately.” As a result of budget pressures as well as some recommendations we received in August 2010 as a result of an outside management review of our organization and services, we are undergoing something we call “re-examining our service strategies” as you will see briefly described on Page 8. This is a significant, multi-year internal effort with a plan to roll out improvements throughout each year, some of which we’ve already announced. So, we’re a little tempted to put up a sign saying “Excuse Our Dust” as we undergo our remodeling process but we’ll just leave it at the brief message contained herein.

We think you’ll find this report an easy and quick read. We hope and expect that you will know much more about your enterprise-wide information technology (IT) service provider and how we fit in to your world.

Respectfully Yours,

Ken HightowerInterim Director

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The County of Sonoma’s Information Systems Department originally began as part of the Auditor-Controller’s Office in 1962. Called the Data Processing Center, the initial focus of the department was on automating financial systems related to payroll, accounting and taxes. The Center’s name was changed to Computer Services and became an individual department in 1969. In 1994, the Communications, Reprographics, and Records Management Divisions of General Services joined with Computer Services to form the Information Systems Department that exists today.

One thing this report has revealed to us is that we are not, historically, very good about highlighting our accomplishments. We will strive to change that as we continue to develop and grow with the County.

In the body of the County, Information Systems works as the central nervous system, powering thought into action using a wide variety of mediums. Whether enabled through telephone, voice mail, radio, email, transfer of data, networking, or documents, communication within the county and out to the community is possible because of thousands of hours of work within Information Systems that make those processes seamless.

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY:

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Message from Ken Hightower 3

Introduction and History 4

Who We Are 6

Administration Division 7

Business Services Group 10

Systems and Programming 13

Technical Services 17

Coming Attractions 22

Acknowledgments 22

Table of Contents

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INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT

Administration

Financial Managment

Personnel

IT Procurement Services

BusinessServicesGroup

Reprographics

Records &Information

Management

Business Services Team

Systems and Programming

Data and Application Solutions

JusticeTeam

Geographical Information

Systems - GIS

Web Team

Project Management

Technical Services

Communications

Telephone

Radio

Data CenterOperations

MainframeTeam

Network Services Team

DesktopSupport

Service Desk

Public Safety Central Support

Team

Who We Are

Like most departments within Sonoma County, Information Systems has precise responsibilities and a specialized language filled with maddening acronyms and abbreviations. Courtesy of the nature of our work, we are largely invisible if the work is done well.

If the government workplace is seen as a theatre, Information Systems is the backstage crew – stagehands, set design, light engineers, script writers. We are not flashy, but we enable and illuminate the good, hard work that County employees perform every day.

Because so many of our functions sound similar to those unfamiliar with the language of technology, we’ve included the lexicon below to help define the divisions within our department.

• Administration – These are the employees who are buried in the budget, contracts, procurement functions, billing, RFPs, and all of the other paperwork needed to make operations run smoothly.

• Business Services Group – Newly formed in 2010, BSG focuses on the customer service aspect of

ISD’s entire family of services. The services BSG will provide include customer relations management, information security management, Reprographics, and Records and Information Management.

• Systems and Programming – From providing a wide variety of County maps to developing and supporting a 24/7 justice data system, the employees here support many different software applications throughout the county. Although the term geek originated in 1916, we’re pretty sure it was perfected here.

• Technical Services – This division, the behemoth of the department, is all about the infrastructure. Phone cables, radio towers, data centers – all of these form the foundation upon which County business is constructed.

We are ISDThank you for letting us serve you.

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Administration - BudgetIn the fiscal year 2010/2011, the wizards within the Information Systems administrative staff were responsible for a budget of $36.9 million, 6% of which comes from the Sonoma County General Fund. The majority of funding comes from charges for services to other departments and agencies both in and outside of the County.

29%

43%

10%

9%

9%

Funding Uses

Fiscal & Administrative Services

Justice Services

Health & Human Services

Development Services

Other Government Services

81%

13%

6%

Funding Sources

Charges for Services

Replacement Funds

County General Fund

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Re-examining Service StrategiesThe Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, is a set of management concepts and practices developed by the British government in the 1980s. In the past three decades, ITIL has evolved to become internationally recognized as the best approach for the management of information technology services and projects. ITIL strategy is customer centric, focusing on providing IT customers with the best services while taking advantage of the ongoing changes and improvements in information technology.

ISD began the process of adopting ITIL practices in mid 2009 with an in-depth introduction and training session for the ISD division directors, followed by certification training for 30 ISD managers in the fall of 2009. Another set of recommendations were produced through the Archstone Report, a management study that was co-sponsored by ISD and the County Administrator’s Office. We are now in the process of implementing recommended ITIL procedures and best business practices including the development of a service catalog, the institution of a change management team, and the consolidation of our various help desk functions into one central service desk. These processes and others to follow are designed to help us meet the complex information technology needs of the various County entities with the best possible products and services.

This is a rendering of what a home computer might look like according to scientists in 1956. We don’t know what the purpose of the steering wheel was, but we kind of want one.

Procurement TeamISD is one of the biggest buyers of gear in the County. Each year we spend thousands of dollars in purchasing computers, servers, printers, radios, telephones, printing and mailing equipment. We also buy or renew hundreds of software licenses and support plans and execute dozens of service agreements to engage the services of outside experts for special projects. All this buying takes a lot of time as well as money. Believe us, it is not as much fun as it sounds.

In an effort to streamline this process and derive the most efficiency out of our budget, ISD has established a Procurement Team. With administrative representatives from all four divisions, this team is responsible for the preparation of all Departmental RFPs, Service Agreements, and license and support plan renewal, and includes one person dedicated to the purchase of hardware and new software. The formation of this team in 2010 has removed some of the administrative duties from IT project managers, enabling them to focus more time on their projects and bringing added efficiencies.

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Just because ISD delivers technological processes and solutions doesn’t mean we should be the only ones making decisions about what gets implemented. In recognition of this need for collaboration and accountability, ISD, together with the County Administrator’s Office, initiated the Information Technology Governance Council (IGC) which held its first meeting in November, 2010.

The purpose of the ICG is to provide executive-level advice and recommendations to the County Administrator (CAO) regarding information technology (IT) investments, strategic plans, policies, procedures and standards, and on oversight of Countywide projects. In doing so, it is the intent of this body to provide collaborative leadership throughout the County in linking IT investments to the County’s strategic plan, monitoring the results of those investments, and ensuring that IT functions are carried out in a consistent, cost effective fashion across all departments and agencies.

Information Technology Governance Council

Communications Radio Advisory GroupIn 2010, the Communications Radio Advisory Group, (CAG), was formed to make decisions about the future of the radio system used by public safety agencies within Sonoma County. The group makes recommendations to the County Administrator about needed improvements or expansions and searches for solutions to the challenges of identifying funding and allocating shared resources.

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Business Services Group“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.” Bill Gates

Since 2009, ISD has adopted industry-standard best practices in the delivery and management of our services. ISD’s Business Services Group (BSG) focuses on service, not technology, and strives to improve partnerships with all ISD service users. This new group represents ISD’s entire family of services. We’re still geeks - we’re just more outgoing.

BSG teams focus specifically on ensuring ISD’s customer experience is positive, and provides value. This requires a strong, ongoing account care program including agreements clarifying service delivery. It also requires ongoing management of service including developing service strategies, designing new value added services, and maintaining a comprehensive catalog of services offered by ISD.

Departments often don’t have the staff and resources needed to stay current with technical solutions to business problems, or ensure they remain compliant with modern data security policy and best practices. Through ISD’s partnership with its service users, departments can be freed from the worry of managing their IT, focusing your energy on your primary mission.

We have the IT expertise and solutions to help you succeed. Some of the tools recently developed to assist our clients:

• Unveiled in March of 2011, the new ISD intranet site sports easier navigation, more comprehensive information, and numerous links to information, documents, and content.

• Also launched in March of 2011, the ISD Service Catalog, accessible through our intranet site, provides an easily assessable list of all services offered by ISD. Each service is now described in a consistent manner, including contact information, service descriptions, related services, and pricing.

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RIM is responsible for Records Services, Mail Processing and Courier and Delivery Services.The American writer Elbert Hubbard noted that it is not deeds or acts that last, but the written records of those deeds. Nowhere in Sonoma County is this more evident than in the Records and Information Management Section, where the county’s official business becomes history. Records retention, or the amount of time records must be kept before being destroyed, is based on legal, regulatory, audit, fiscal, operational and historical requirements. Tracking this for all of the departments is a task requiring high levels of organization, vigilance, and attention to detail.

The ISD Records Center houses over 42,000 of its customer’s records boxes. These customers benefit from convenient, reliable and secure services for the storage, retrieval and disposition of records and files.

The ISD Mailroom, also housed in the Records Center, processes annually over 3 million pieces of mail. We provide centralized mail processing services for outgoing letters, postcards, large envelopes, and packages.

The ISD Courier offers daily scheduled pickup and delivery services to County departments and agencies, as well as other government entities.

Records and Information Management (RIM)

Records in 2010:Over 42,000 boxes of

documents stored.18,900 records transferred

or retrieved.3,044,100 pieces of mail

processed.

Energy SavingsDuring February 2011 the Records and Information Management Section participated in two energy savings projects with Sonoma County General Services: 1. the installation of motion activated energy-efficient lighting - expected to reduce utility costs for the 14,000 square foot Sonoma County Records Center; and 2. the replacement of the 17 year old step van used for deliveries with a Hybrid Electric Vehicle, partially funded by a grant from the California Air Resources board and CalStart Hybrid Vehicle Voucher Program.

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ReprographicsEstablished in 1948 by the Board of Supervisors to serve departments in delivering efficient and cost effective printing services, Reprographics functions as the County’s print center. They provide a wide range of services to both government agencies and community non-profit organizations.

Dedicated to providing excellent customer service, Reprographics works with customers to produce high-quality products to meet the most discerning needs.

Reprographics printed 9,100,000

pieces in 2010 and made

3,338,562 copies.

A typical trifold brochure can run

through the folder at around 10,000 pieces

per hour!

Services offered include:

• Offset printing• High-speed copying• Color Printing• Graphic Design• Bindery• Mail Preparation Services

If there were a competition to see which section had the coolest tools to work with, Reprographics would be hard to beat. The Kodak Magnus creates the plates from which prints are made. An emulsion coated aluminum plate is inserted into the Magnus, where it is wrapped around a drum or barrel. 32 separate lasers create the image on the plate. After the imaging is completed, the original plate is given a water wash and then copies are made, laying down the different color palettes in separate applications. The end result is a magnificent, high-resolution photorealistic image.

Other tools with fabulous names include the Densitometer, which measures the thickness of the ink being used, and the Spectrophotometer, which ensures color accuracy. This becomes important when using the Heidelberg two-color presses, which have rows of color configuration rods called keys, each adjusted by hand.

High speed digital printing is also accomplished with two state of the art Xerox machines capable of reproducing output from either electronic files or copies.

Other equipment includes machines that three-hole-punch, bind, fold, score, staple and collate huge numbers of documents, brochures, pamphlets, fliers and reports.

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Systems and ProgrammingThe responsibilities of this division include designing, developing, installing andmaintaining application systems in the IBM mainframe, client-server and web-based computer environments and platforms throughout the County. In simpler terms, every time a particular software program is used, this division enables that use – and there are over 400 different software programs used within the County. The division is comprised of Application and Data Solutions, GIS, the Justice and Web Teams, as well as Project Management.

GISThe Geographic Information Systems Team produces high-quality cartographic images (that would be maps, for the uninitiated) and applications to assist a wide variety of customers with day to day work processes and decisions. They also maintain the data that supports several mission-critical systems, such as the Computer Aided Dispatch, or 911, system, the ActiveMap program and the SoCoMap program.Projects produced by GIS form an impressive array of diversity and detail. Endeavors completed this past year include supporting the 2010 Census, critical system updates to the Fire Run (or map) Book, modernized district maps for the Board of Supervisors, and the management of critical infrastructure data to improve emergency response.

Other projects accomplished by GIS include:

• Preparation of court room exhibits for over 56 cases presented by the District Attorney.

• Proximity map creation for Public Health’s Prevention and Planning Division that indicates the location of licensed alcohol sales and their position in relation to public schools.

• Updating a map identifying the sites of leaking underground storage tanks for the Environmental Health Department.

• Provision of maps and images to support the County’s proposal to build the State’s $180 million criminal courthouse on County-owned property.

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Justice TeamThe Justice Team develops and maintains the Integrated Justice System (IJS) for Sonoma County. From tracking inmate locations within the detention facilities to court calendaring, an enormous amount of information passes through this system every day. The list that follows outlines only a fraction of this team’s accomplishments in 2010.

• Collaboration with the Web Team provided a new public web site that allows crime victims to look up information for cases in which they are involved. The District Attorney must provide such information to victims as a legal requirement, and this system saves time and resources that would be spent manually assembling and disseminating those reports.

• The team implemented a change in the Integrated Justice System that allows the courts to take credit card and ATM payments. This has improved collections for the court systems.

• Booking and release information is now interfaced with a vendor system called VINES. This system allows crime victims to subscribe to alerts so they know when persons convicted of crimes against them are released from jail.

• The team added functionality to the Detention System, charging inmates for the “Welfare Bags” that they receive when booked. This has added to the Jail’s revenue.

• Access to Criminal.Net was provided to the Department of Child Support Services, complete with training on the use of the system. This has helped DCSS track and recoup monies from delinquent parents.

• The team engineered bi-directional integration between IJS and “Offender Link,” a new vendor-hosted solution that helps track people on probation. The integration provides a means of transferring updated address and telephone contact information back to IJS, and also allows the system to remind people on probation of any balances owed in fees, fines and restitution. This is expected not only to increase collections by the Probation Department but will allow for efficiency with fewer Probation resources available under the current budget.

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Application & Data SolutionsIt can be difficult to grasp the diversity of the projects that this team supports. From software programs that trace the light brown apple moth to providing an update for a firehouse-specific program, this powerhouse group works behind the screens to support many different software programs used throughout the County and by several partners outside the County.

One of the largest projects has been the implementation of the new Human Resources Management System (HRMS), which will replace the mainframe payroll and position control systems as well as some internal databases for the Human Resources Department. This monumental assignment involved business and technical analysis, the development of data exchanges, conversions of legacy data, and coordinating with all involved departments and vendors.

At the risk of sounding like a page from a Matrix script, the Applications Team delves into the inner workings of the programs used every day and can fix them, make them interface with other programs, and provide analysis on how the interface is working. They may not freeze time or dodge bullets, but they certainly save time on hundreds of applications daily and avert small disasters through their work.

Project ManagementThis group is newly formed to focus on providing project management services tailored specifically to your organization’s culture. Our Project Managers will direct your projects within the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and budget, aligning those parameters with critical aspects of success, ensuring quality, usability and efficiency.

“It’s the question... that drives us.”

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Web TeamSystems and Programming’s (S & P) Web Team serves both County departments and the community members each department serves. The public counts on County websites to be informative and user-friendly, as well as being ADA accessible, and the Web Team delivers on all counts.

A few of the Web Team’s projects and accomplishments over the past year include:

A Sharepoint site has been built with each new or revamped website. County employees have greatly increased the use of this timesaving application for collaboration and communication.

The Regional Parks website was given an updated look. Quarterly paper newsletters were also converted to monthly electronic format, saving postage, paper and the environment. www.sonomacountyparks.org

The Sonoma County Transportation Authority and Regional Climate Protection Authority websites were combined in a way reflects the missions of these two agencies. www.sctainfo.org

A new addition to the Permits and Resource Management Department site means users of this site can now locate information and photographs in the Historic Landmarks section on sites with historic designation. www.sonoma-county.org/prmd

District Attorney Victim Witness Services: Criminal Case Lookup is a new application that has been created in the Victim and Witness Services menu that can be used by parties involved in criminal court hearings and trials. Next event information can be accessed by police report number or court case number, ensuring that important dates aren’t missed. This project was developed in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office and the S & P Justice Team.

Visit the Sonoma County Press Release site for a comprehensive list of current and archived press releases. www.press.sonomacounty.org

Family Justice Center A new site was designed to bring web presence to this important program. www.fjcsc.org

Toolkit: Insurance Requirements for Contracts Sponsored by HR-Risk Management, this “Toolkit” enables County contract writers using the current Professional Services Agreement Template to link to a template for the appropriate insurance requirements attachment, reducing risk and administrative workload. www.hr.sonoma-county.org

Other newsletters converted from paper to electronic format: Animal Care and Control Paw Prints: www.theanimalshelter.org The Reporter- Sonoma County Employees Newsletter: www.sonoma-county.org/reporter

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Technical ServicesThe core mission of this division involves operating and maintaining infrastructure. Similar in nature to a Public Works Department, the roadways engineered and maintained here are conduits for information in all its differing formats. The behemoth of divisions within the department, Technical Services is comprised of the Phone, Radio, Operations, Network, Public Safety Consortium, Desktop Support, and Client Services.

TelephoneGovernment employees can be a chatty bunch, but Information that can be dispensed over the telephone can often mean saving a member of the community a trip to research what they need. To that end, the Telephone Section provides telephone service to the entire County organization, with the exception of the SCWA and the Fairgrounds. Approximately 5,000 users benefit from the phone, voice mail, speaker phones, cellular phones, paging systems, public address, and other systems that we provide for communication ease.

This is accomplished through eight large PBX switches and 24 smaller PBX switches, which means public branch exchange (PBX also stands for some type of explosive, but we don’t strive for that in the telephone industry).

Anticipated in 2011 is a new voice mail system, which will replace the current rather balky one.

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The Sonoma County Public Safety Consortium, a Joint Powers Authority, is a coalition of law enforcement and fire and emergency services agencies that share resources and information systems. Member agencies include Cotati Police Department, Petaluma Police Department, Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department, Santa Rosa Police Department, Sonoma Police Department, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, Windsor Police Department, and the Redwood Empire Dispatch Emergency Communications (REDCOM) group, which dispatches 62 fire agencies and emergency medical service companies.

For nearly a decade, PSCST has maintained and supported the hardware and software that make up the Consortium’s computer-aided dispatch and the mobile data radio system used in all public safety vehicles. The dispatch application runs all emergency and routine calls from the dispatch centers to public safety vehicles and includes components for crime analysis and data feeds to outside agencies. The data radio system covers 97% of the county and enables public safety employees to access calls for service in their vehicles, as well as

Public Safety Central Support Team (PSCST)

WHAT IS A TERABYTE?If you printed out a terabyte’s worth of paper and stacked it, the stack would reach 18,480 feet high, or 3.5 miles.

That’s roughly the same height as Mount McKinley (Denali) in Alaska.

Dealing with disaster on a day to day basis is Public Safety’s job.

Allowing them to communicate when they need to is ours.

run inquiries and receive messages. Along with the 13 radio tower sites needed to operate this system, wireless air cards are used, as well as an encryption program.

The PSCST provides application support, database administration, system administration, analytical reporting, and project management for these systems. Maintenance includes the housing of servers in a controlled data center, network infrastructure, and security and backup systems. And in addition to all this, the team provides 24/7 phone support as needed by officers out in the field.

To best illustrate importance of the system supported by PSCST, consider the scenario of an officer spotting an occupied vehicle on a dimly lit street. With the mobile data computer in the vehicle, they can quickly ascertain if a vehicle has been reported stolen, or whether it may be associated with a missing child from an adjacent community. Without the computer in the vehicle, an officer must wait through heavy radio traffic to make their request and then wait for the response, battling for time on the air with everyone else on duty. The mobile data terminals provide a crucial conduit for receiving vital information quickly. Now for some technological language: the core system utilizes an Oracle 10g platform with the ability to switch over to a disaster recovery site for minimal downtime in the event of a system failure. There are 18 servers supporting over four Terabytes of data capacity.

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Radio The Radio Section maintains a sprawling, complex system that enables the public safety community to communicate when they need to in the day to day activities of their work. The current system operates on fourteen different tower sites throughout the county and utilizes equipment with names out of a (slightly older) science fiction television show: analog, microwaves, repeaters, simulcast, bandwidth, antennae.

Essentially, when a firefighter, paramedic, or peace officer keys the microphone on their radio, their “traffic” is broadcast through every tower site in the county, ensuring that they can be heard by anyone tuned into that particular radio channel. Calibrated by fractions of a second apart, the traffic touches every tower in broadcasting, and can even automatically reverse and backtrack in the case of a tower being damaged or out of service, ensuring that all working towers still receive and transmit the traffic.

To the Radio Technicians, however, out of service is not an acceptable state. Radio work is an esoteric specialty within the technical world, and Sonoma County’s topography makes maintaining reliable radio coverage challenging. Whether dangling from the top of a radio tower or maintaining the radio network at the storage vault, the radio technicians are the unsung heroes of public safety by ensuring that those needing help are able to be heard.

“Without [radio] communications, you’re just camping.” - James

Barnett Jr., in presentation on the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: Disaster

Communications Restoration Lessons Learned

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Data Center OperationsThere are two familiar sayings. One intones that the wheels of government turn slowly. The other, dealing with the increasingly rapid developments in technology, states: Technology – It’s no place for wimps.

Bridging the ideological – and temporal – gaps between these two sayings is the primary focus of the Technical Services Data Center Operations Section. Comprised of the Mainframe, Network Services, Desktop Support, and Service Desk Teams, Operations manages data storage, efficiencies, servers, and provides assistance to clients who are having difficulty navigating the system (or remembering passwords). They constantly strive to find ways to save space, time, and money. If Information Systems were a car show room, Operations would be the folks under the hood. They’re not working on the shiniest part of the car, but it certainly couldn’t run without them.

Service Desk We understand. Not everyone likes technology. It just needs to work. Helping to ensure that is the Service Desk, formerly known as the Help Desk. The Service Desk serves as a single point of contact for resolving computing problems remotely, answering questions and ultimately connecting callers with the right IT expert so that needs are met as quickly as possible. Think of them as the triage section of an emergency room. In September 2010, ISD implemented a self-service password management tool in order for employees to manage their Windows password if they forgot it. Not only did this technological improvement empower users to help themselves, it eliminated the need for supervisors to send an email authorization to the ISD Help Desk.

Desktop Support The idea that ISD is comprised of mole people huddled in front of monitors is a myth. At least one section of ISD gets out and about, acting as the paramedics to ailing technological equipment. The Desktop Support Team supports the County’s 3,500 desktop and laptop computers, hundreds of software applications, printers, and peripherals. Their many responsibilities include maintaining security updates, procuring and managing licenses, and troubleshooting. Much of their time is spent at the workstations of others, diagnosing, upgrading, and fixing what needs to be fixed in order to accommodate County business and services.

In 2010, the Service Desk handled 20,349 calls, averaging over

80 calls every day.

That’s more calls than the town of

Winsor made to law enforcement that

same year.

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Here are just a few accomplishments of Data Center Operations from 2010 - 2011:

Storage ConsolidationIn technological terms: Slower 10,000 RPM drives in one Storage Area Network (SAN) were replaced with faster 15,000 RPM drives, 146 GB drives in one SAN were replaced with 300 GB drives, Five Terabytes (remember Mt. McKinley?) of unused storage were reclaimed, and all iSCSI (older and unreliable) servers were migrated to a new SAN.

End Result: • Improved performance• Increased system reliability• Redundancy – a good thing in computers – with reduced

service interruptions.

Upgrade of Virtualization PlatformIn technological terms: VMware vSphere Production and DMZ Farms were built or upgraded to version 4.1, and 189 servers with over 12 TB (a whole range of Mt. McKinleys) of data were moved from the VMware 3.5 Farm to the vSphere Farm.

End Result: Thirty-nine physical servers were able to be retired, and all data was moved with zero data loss and without unexpected downtime.

Backup Tape ModificationsIn technological terms: Two LTO Tape Robots were installed.

End Result: If having robots wasn’t cool enough on its own, tape consumption went down from 78 to 15 per month, network backups were reduced in time by 3%, or approximately nine hours, and $46,500 is saved annually in tape purchases.

Additionally, data center power usage was reduced by 3%, new cooling equipment was networked for higher synchronization and efficiency, security was increased with added surveillance equipment to the data center, changes in scheduling and staffing on the Service Desk reduced the need for overtime and standby, and a new layer of protection was added against virus attacks and spam.

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Coming Attractions

We have devoted plenty of space to who we are here at ISD, and what we’ve accomplished over the past year. Now we’d like to give just a glimpse of some of the exciting things coming up soon. Stay tuned!

1. Online Meetings and Video Conferencing – Sure to save travel time and resources, meetings will be able to be conducted with others all over the globe. Just don’t forget to turn off the video function if you’re making faces and gestures at the speaker.

2. EDMS – This is an electronic documents management system that will be launched in a pilot program soon with a few departments. Because wouldn’t we all like to be able to find that document that we filed so logi-cally, only to be unable to locate it?

3. Windows 7 – Our Desktop Support Team will begin migrating County computers to this new operating sys-tem within a few months. (And yes, that’s migrating like birds do – only less messy.)

4. Expansion of the Single Sign -On project – this is exciting for those County workers who have to use pass-words to log into as many as a dozen separate programs every day. Having this tool means one password accesses all your programs.

5. Replacement for FAMIS – Research is being done with vendors, but funding hasn’t yet been identified. Still – geeks can dream, too.

6. Web Content Management System – Now departments will be able to self-publish to their websites, in-creasing efficiency and saving time.

7. HRMS Phase II – This will be the second phase of the Human Resources Management System, and it will en-able employees to utilize self-service options, including open enrollment.

8. Voice Mail Replacement – While this is a program that you only notice if you’re having trouble with it, the new version will form the bridge between the current system and Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP), so that the phone system can be networked with other county systems.

AcknowledgmentsConcept: Ken Hightower, Department DirectorPhotography: Jay Blackburn, Devlin MartinsenDesign, Layout and Graphics: Devlin MartinsenProject Manager: Joe Galvan, Director of Business Services GroupEditor in Chief: Jodi FrostEditing Team: Susan Scott, Trisha Griffus, Trish Collins, Cairo Stolting, Susanne Lake, Sher Ennis

Additional thanks are due to everyone from all levels of the department that put up with our many (at times, rather pedestrian) questions and offered explanations, often with great enthusiasm.

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Mission StatementThe mission of the Sonoma County Information Systems Department is to provide technological leadership in the management and distribution of information by providing excellent and cost effective products and services to support the mission of Sonoma County.