YOUNGSTOWN City council approves legislation to upgrade computer equipment

The city will spend about $130,000 to upgrade its mainframe computer.
By ROB MEYER
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Seven years ago, a third-floor city hall office was packed wall-to-wall with 6-foot high machines weighing hundreds of pounds.
No, this wasn't the boiler room. Those machines were computers -- huge versions of what people have on their desktops now.
Some of those machines are still on the third floor today. They won't be there for much longer, however.
The city is upgrading the computer systems used to run some of its most important operations, from sewer-plant monitoring to police records.
Council approved legislation Wednesday to buy new computer software and hardware to ultimately replace the city's IBM mainframe, which dates to 1996.
IBM recently told the city it won't maintain the mainframe after year's end. That means the city must upgrade.
The new computer equipment will emulate the city's system and be much more efficient, said Michael Kraynanski, chief information officer of the city's Management Information Services department.
"This will be a transitional platform," he said. "Fiscally, it is impossible to upgrade everything at once. It's not realistic. But we're making progress."
The upgrade will cost an estimated $130,000 that the city will finance over four to five years, Kraynanski said. The outdated mainframe costs about $60,000 a year to maintain.
The new equipment will be cheaper and more economical, he said. The city pays monthly rent for its software and hardware. The upgrades will let the city own all the equipment.
"This is the economical solution. This will not increase our budget," Kraynanski said.
The upgrades also will make the city's computer system faster. The mainframe sends data at 1 million or 2 million instructions per second, or m.p.s. The upgrade will have a transfer rate of 6 m.p.s. IBM makes processors with transfer rates up to 64 m.p.s.
The city will be discard its big, old mainframe units once the upgrade happens later this year.
"I'll be lucky if I can get someone to take the old equipment away without me paying them," Kraynanski said.