President calls for data center consolidation

The Obama administration wants federal agencies to cut waste by selling and consolidating excess real estate, specifically calling for a reduction in a surplus of government-owned data centers.

In a memo to executives at departments and agencies, President Barack Obama said that as the private sector has reduced data-center use by leveraging new technology to improve efficiency while the federal government has increased its data center ownership in recent years. This has resulted in greater spending around energy consumption, real estate, operations and maintenance.

At an April 7 policy forum, Federal CIO Kundra said the number of federal data centers has grown from 432 to more than 1,100 in the past decade, but "server utilization is actually at around 7 percent."

The Office of Management and Budget, with assistance from the General Services Administration and the Federal Real Property Council, will be providing agencies with specific guidance and targets for costs savings by September 8, the memo states. Ultimately the White House hopes this strategy will result in at least $3 billion in cost savings by September 30, 2012.

This memo comes just two days after the White House instructed federal agencies to identify their "least critical" programs for elimination, which must total at least 5 percent for their discretionary budgets, reported the Congressional Quarterly.

For more:
- see the memo from the White House
- here the CQ article

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