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Federal data center consolidation initiative

On February 26, 2010, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra issued a memorandum to all CIOs announcing the Federal data center consolidation initiative.

The memo outlines the urgent need for a fundamental shift in how technology is deployed due to the substantial growth in redundant infrastructure.

Federal data centers grew from 432 in 1998 to more than 1,100 in 2009. OMB Budget Data Request 2009

In 2006, Federal servers and data centers consumed over 6 billion kWh of electricity and without a fundamental shift in how we deploy technology it could exceed 12 billion kWh by 2011. EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency

The Initiative aims to address these challenges by leveraging best practices in the public and private sector. The focus of this initiative is to:

  • Promote the use of Green IT by reducing the overall energy and real estate footprint for government data centers;
  • Reduce the cost of data center hardware, software and operations;
  • Increase the overall IT security posture of the government; and
  • Shift IT investments to more efficient computing platforms and technologies.

Data center consolidation initiative deadlines

The following processes have been devised to collect information that will dive the data center consolidation plans:

  • INITIAL ASSET INVENTORY: Agencies will conduct an initial inventory of data center assets by April 30, 2010.
  • INITIAL DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION PLAN: Agencies will develop an initial data center consolidation plan by June 30, 2010.
  • FINAL ASSET INVENTORY BASELINE: Agencies will collect the final asset inventory baseline containing more detailed information by July 30, 2010.
  • FINAL DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION PLANS: Agencies will develop their final data center consolidation plans and incorporate them into their 2012 fiscal year budgets by August 30, 2010.
  • ONGOING MONITORING

For full details of the data center consolidation initiative read the memo here

Official Department of Energy Best practice for Energy-Efficient Data Center Design is available here

To see how 1E can help click here