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Orange County Seeks Cost Comparisons for Azure

After moving off IBM mainframe several years ago, the county IT department is now looking for information about the possibility of moving some of its technology off the Microsoft Azure cloud.

Aerial view of Newport Beach in Orange County, Calif., on a sunny day.
Orange County is looking into what it would cost to migrate some of its technology away from Microsoft Azure.

Orange County Information Technology (OCIT) has released a request for information (RFI) on what could amount to a large project — migrating data, applications and cloud services currently hosted in Azure to the selected cloud provider. That would include:
  • Application services
  • Networking configurations
  • Storage
  • Databases
  • Virtual machines
A spokesperson with the county specified that OCIT likely couldn't move entirely off Azure, and the RFI is meant to gather cost comparison information to inform any possible moves.

Much of the work would require careful planning and testing. For example, the RFI states that the vendor would need to ensure applications are compatible with the new cloud services, reconfigure them for the new environment and test them to make sure they’re functioning correctly after deployment. OCIT would also require thorough testing and verification to validate the data migration.

OCIT also expects vendors to account for security needs, data backup and recovery, networking configuration and infrastructure setup. The county is looking for staff training on working in the new cloud environment as well as documentation of architecture, configuration and operational procedures.

Azure is not the only cloud environment the county operates in; in its Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget book, the Clerk-Recorder reported moving a system to Amazon Web Services. The county used to host an IBM mainframe but retired the hardware in FY 2022-23 after moving the last application off it.

OCIT’s budget for FY 2025-26 is $132.7 million, accounting for its shared and countywide services funds. The CIO is Kc Roestenberg.

The deadline for questions for the RFI is 4 p.m. Oct. 6. Submissions are due 4 p.m. Nov. 3. The county will accept questions through OpenGov.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with clarification from the county about the nature of the RFI.
Ben Miller is the associate editor of data and business for Government Technology.