On Friday, Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) donated eight computer servers to the Norwich School System as the utility completes a major upgrade of its information technology infrastructure. 

NPU purchased the servers in 2019 for approximately $20,000. Purchasing eight equivalent servers today would be approximately $40,000. These types of servers convert physical data and information into a format that can then be consumed and used by an organization’s computer system.

“NPU is always happy to collaborate with our friends at the Norwich School System, and we hope that this donation will provide them with valuable back-up resources,” said Chris LaRose, General Manager of NPU. “Like most organizations, we understand the importance of having a strong IT system to safely manage data and improve efficiency and operational performance.” 

Since 2023, NPU has been upgrading its Supervisory Controls and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to improve its cybersecurity and meet increasing capacity demands across all its utility systems. As the devices became obsolete with the requirements for NPU’s new system, they were offered to the Norwich Public Schools, who almost immediately expressed an interest using the servers for backups at several of their locations.

“These servers will be configured to serve as primary or backup appliances within our school buildings and will be a substantial upgrade to some servers that we currently have in place. We are grateful for the relationship that we have with Norwich Public Utilities and thank them for their support,” said Matt Warzecha, Director of Information Technology for the Norwich Public Schools. 

The servers are fairly standard equipment for large IT systems and will be wiped clean of all NPU data and hard drives before they are picked up by the IT Team for Norwich Public Schools; the school system will then install new hard-drives and other necessary software before putting them into service.