Melrose set to serve as data hub for other municipalities

Melrose will soon begin using its computer servers to host data for the much smaller community of Essex, with an eye toward providing the service to up to four other municipalities.

Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, who came up with the idea in 2010 while serving on Gov. Deval Patrick’s Regionalization Advisory Commission, in recent months has had discussions with several other communities, including ones as far away as North Adams and the Hampden County town of Holland. He said that Arlington has expressed interest in backing up its data on a Melrose server while continuing to operate its own technology.

Essex, with a population of roughly 3,500, has agreed to pay $6,500 for each full year of service. The contract covers a two-year period, but can be extended annually for up to 25 years.

“This gives us access to a truly professional shop,” said Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki, who until now has dealt with the town’s information technology needs on his own. “I’m a professional town administrator, but I’m not a professional IT manager. I just happen to have a back-up in Melrose.”

One reason that Essex was willing to be the first to sign up with Melrose, Zubricki said, is that Essex has a relatively new computer server of its own.

“If something doesn’t work [with Melrose], we can roll back,” Zubricki said. “We’re not giving up the infrastructure we already have.”

He said the savings will be most notable several years from now, when Essex would be expected to upgrade or replace its server.

Zubricki added that Essex is also looking into establishing a cellular-based connection as a back-up should, say, a storm temporarily disable the Internet connection with Melrose.