Colorado spends $2.4 million on emergency laptops for state employees who can work at home

In a scramble to build up work-from-home infrastructure, Colorado's state government is spending about $2.4 million to purchase emergency laptops for remote employees, according to the governor's Office of Information Technology.

There are some 30,000 people who work for the state, and while some of their jobs can't be done remotely — corrections officers, Colorado State Patrol troopers and some transportation staff, for example — it appears that many corners of state government are moving in that direction.

A spokeswoman for the Office of Information Technology said that 14 different state departments and offices requested new laptops, and that the state purchased nearly 1,800 of them, at a cost of $1,325 per unit. The laptops are made by the Chinese tech company Lenovo.

The spokeswoman told The Denver Post that the IT office created a task force earlier this month to prepare for the COVID-19 crisis, and "to ensure state network and system continuity during the state's response."

A statement from the office reads: "With additional social distancing measures in place, we understand that many residents will rely on important state services now more than ever. Together with our agency partners, OIT is committed to maintaining and protecting the state systems Coloradans need most.

"OIT is closely monitoring state network bandwidth to ensure that we can support a growing remote workforce while maintaining business operations. Utilization is holding steady at a sustainable level with significant room to expand usage should more state employees move to teleworking in the coming weeks."

In addition to the new laptops, OIT says it has spent $7,800 to increase its virtual private network (VPN) capacity from 10,000 to 30,000 users.

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