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The number of Federal data centers rapidly grew from 432 in 1998 to nearly 2,100 in 2010. This trend conflicts with the proven private-sector best practice of consolidating and reducing the number of data centers to reduce IT infrastructure costs, real property expenditures, energy consumption, and environmental impacts. As a result, OMB launched the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), which seeks to reduce the number of data centers the government owns, operates, and leases. These data centers – some as big as a football field, others as small as a closet –  represent billions in wasted capital that could be better used to improve upon critical services for American taxpayers. By closing data centers, can save taxpayers billions of dollars by cutting spending on wasteful, underutilized hardware and software as well as enhancing our cybersecurity; shrinking our energy and real estate footprints; and taking advantage of transformational technologies like cloud computing to make government work better for the nation. Agencies spent FY10 creating comprehensive consolidation plans based on their unique mission needs; these plans outline consolidation work through FY15. Currently, agencies are executing their consolidation plans.

In December 2010, the Administration made data center consolidation a key tenet of the comprehensive 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management. Under this plan, agencies will consolidate at least 800 data centers by FY15. After a year of agencies working hard to develop plans and targets, we are not only on track – but exceeding that goal. In late 2011, we announced that:

• Agencies plan to close 215 data centers in 2011;
• Agencies plan to close 525 data centers by the end of 2012; and
• Agencies plan to close 1,080 data centers by the end of 2015.

Rather than stop there and call it a success that we’re on track to close 25% more data centers than our goal, the Administration is expanding its efforts. As a result, the FDCCI now includes data centers of all sizes rather than just those 500 square feet and above. And as we expand the FDCCI, we are also expanding our goal. Moving forward, the government’s goal will be to close at least 40% of identified data centers, consistent with our original consolidation goal outlined in the comprehensive 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management. That means we’ll be looking to consolidate at least 1200 data centers by the end of 2015 – a goal that requires us to continue aggressively rooting out duplication and waste in our expanded baseline of 3,133 data centers.

Also hard at work is a government-wide Data Center Consolidation Task Force (Task Force) comprised of data center program managers, facilities managers, and the Federal sustainability community. The Task Force is addressing topics such as multi-tenant requirements, cost modeling, ways for agencies to share data center capacity, technical approaches to consolidation, how to use cloud computing to accelerate consolidation, acquisition modalities, and the coordination of the FDCCI with Federal real property and sustainability efforts. Additionally, the Task Force leads ongoing data center inventory validation and verification mechanisms to ensure the accuracy of agency inventory profiles and the successful execution of agency consolidation plans. Lastly, it continually shares best practices and lessons learned as agency consolidation efforts evolve.

While agencies continue to rack up closures and focus on consolidation opportunities to maximize savings, it’s equally important to focus on the efficiencies of the data centers that remain in our inventory. These data centers, which will take on additional work as we consolidate, will become the centerpieces of service delivery to American taxpayers. That is why the Task Force has begun to focus on the efficiencies of the data centers we keep. We need to ensure we are delivering better service to the American people for less. Accordingly, agencies will focus on computing power and density instead of capacity, taking advantage of current technologies that deliver the highest efficiencies.

The Department of Education's Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative plan can be found here.