Best-in-class systems boost efficiency and peace of mind for local government in booming city

Rapid Growth Creates New IT Demands for Seguin

Located just 30 miles east of San Antonio—and less than an hour’s drive from Austin—the city of Seguin combines small-town charm with big-city convenience. And the secret is out. With a population that’s grown by 33% in the past five years, Seguin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation. It’s the job of Shane McDaniel, Chief Information Officer, to ensure that the city’s IT infrastructure can effectively support all the critical services for the growing citizen base. Think public safety, utilities services, economic development, municipal courts, and the like. The IT team has 15 full-time staff, supporting 23 city departments, 40 facilities, and more than 500 employees. Change has been the one constant for the entire city.

Aging Infrastructure Fails to Keep Up

“I’ve been here for seven years, and so much of our private infrastructure needed to be addressed,” says McDaniel, who is also president of the Texas Association of Government IT Managers (TAGITM), the premier organization for local government IT professionals in Texas. “We felt confident that the growth of the city was on the horizon, so we chose ‘top shelf’ solutions for the networking, perimeter security, and so on. We’re now on the second iteration for most of these pieces, but the growth potential of our core systems architecture was just not there.”

Back in 2018, the City of Seguin invested in a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution to gain the efficiencies of virtualized servers and storage. However, over the natural lifecycle of the hardware, the city’s IT team was faced with integration issues, server failures, and endless frustration. Despite growing to include 90 virtual servers and 200 terabytes of data, the IT staff had little confidence in the technology’s ability to support future growth.

“In a perfect world, we would have gotten a few more years out of that platform,” says McDaniel. “But support was a constant struggle. We had to make things work on our own and just hope that nothing went wrong.”

Choosing Freeit for Smarter IT Modernization

The City of Seguin turned to Freeit Data Solutions for best-in-class technology that could be easily deployed and efficiently scaled to meet the city’s long-term needs. Working closely with the city’s IT team, Freeit experts identified Nutanix HCI as the ideal virtualization platform, paired with Cohesity backup and recovery solutions.

Nutanix HCI Powers City Services with Reliability and Scale

Nutanix HCI enables the City of Seguin to support a wide range of government services from a single management platform, with trusted reliability, high availability, and disaster recovery capabilities. For example, the city’s utility services—electricity distribution, water, and wastewater services—are intimately integrated with an ERP application on the Nutanix platform. The annual utility fund revenue is close to $69M, so any system downtime can be disastrous. But the six-week migration to Nutanix was non-disruptive and hassle-free.

“So far, my guys are loving the new solution, and I don’t suspect that’s going to change,” says McDaniel. “Nutanix is super easy to use. When we call support—which I know the team has done at least once—we get to talk to somebody who really knows what they’re doing and can quickly solve the issue.”

Leveraging Federal Grants to Strengthen Cybersecurity

Of course, when it comes to state and local governments, technology funding can be tight. One reason the City of Seguin was able to pursue its Freeit engagement was due to McDaniel’s work in securing federal funding. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through September 2025, the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) aimed to strengthen the cybersecurity and resilience of government IT systems.

According to McDaniel, the process to secure the federal grant was long and arduous, but well worth it. Seguin has also leveraged other services through DHS CISA, to include a week-long security audit that noted serious gaps in the city’s backup strategy. They also recommended Seguin dedicate more personnel to cybersecurity.

“As a government entity, there are all kinds of wonderful mechanisms to not just receive grant funding, but also to receive these services like onsite security audits,” says McDaniel. “It was great to get their guidance. And the best thing that came out of the audit was on the last day, when the city manager attended. He heard the need for more resources, fast forward a year later, and we literally sent out the offer letter for a second dedicated cyber FTE this week.”

Building a Future-Ready City with Freeit, Nutanix, and Cohesity

On the technology side, Freeit ensured that any funding delays didn’t impact the successful deployment of the Nutanix and Cohesity solution. To help protect its data from ransomware attacks and other evolving threats, the City of Seguin can now count on more consistent backups, as well as higher levels of cyber-resilience.

Every step of the way, the relationship with Freeit provided the City of Seguin with more peace of mind. “Word of mouth is how you succeed in local government, at least in Texas,” says McDaniel. “I can guarantee that Freeit is one of the best providers because their name comes up again and again when I talk to my friends in other cities, counties, and utility districts. They have an awesome reputation, and it’s well deserved.”

Preparing for Continued Growth and Innovation

Whether it’s equipping a new fire station or upgrading the microwave radio network, the City of Seguin must continually balance its budget priorities for supporting the fast-growing community. Through it all, the City knows Freeit is dedicated to its success.

“I feel confident that we have the right products and partners in place now, and moving forward, they can continue to grow with the City of Seguin as we continue to expand as an organization and municipality,” says McDaniel. “My hope is that after I’m long retired, the City will be so thrilled with the capabilities and evolution of Nutanix and Cohesity that they will choose to stick with the platforms when it’s time to refresh due to their empowering the city to the high standards we have set for innovation.”