By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — Marshall County will explore the funding possibilities for new computer technology.
Mike Marshall, County IT director, came before the Marshall County Council with his plan to replace the current server technology with a virtual server.
The county currently uses 17 different computer servers for county business. The new technology would allow that number to drop as low as three over the course of time.

The technology employs two pieces of hardware, at two separate locations, used exclusively for the storage of data. Another piece of hardware allows servers to re-allocate resources automatically to where they are needed.
The technology would shorten repair time needed in the case of failures in some cases to just minutes. Marshall indicated that the system takes “snapshots” of the county system at different intervals. In case of any failure, the system could be restored almost immediately from that information.
The two storage sites in separate locations would act as backup in case of a catastrophe to one site. The backup could be used to reboot the county system very quickly.
Marshall requested an additional $56,000 to purchase the hardware and software necessary for the project. He said the cost savings for the county would not be immediate, but by lowering the need for more servers, and not replacing many of them as they go offline, there would be a considerable savings over time.
The council felt the project should be pursued by the county but questions arose over where to find the money.
Councilman Ralph Booker suggested a “mixture” of funds, rather than all the money coming from one particular place. Council President Matt Hassel also questioned where the dollars were going to come from to fund the project.
The council asked Marshall to explore possibilities of other departments “chipping in” some of the money from their budgets, and return to them with an outline of how the system will be funded.
In other County Coucil business:
The assessor’s office will hire three new full-time employees to help with the work load of taking on all township assessors duties, as required by state law.
Marshall County Assessor Debra Dunning’s office will be responsible for all 10 township assessors’ duties after July 1.
The office will hire a full-time deputy and a receptionist to start on July 1 with a second deputy to be added after the first of the year.