The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved a bill setting hard deadlines for consolidating data centers and requiring agencies to conduct inventories and implement consolidation strategies.
GAO estimates that OMB’s data center consolidation initiative (which seeks to shut down 1,200 of 3,000 data centers) could save up to $3 billion by 2015 but agencies have been slow to implement consolidation plans or in some cases even inventory their assets.
The bill would require agencies to submit complete data center inventories and a consolidation strategy with a timeline and projected cost savings. It would also require agencies to set hard deadlines and submit annual updates, direct GAO to verify agency data center inventories, and have OMB report to Congress on progress.
Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., originally filed the bill as an amendment to the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013. The committee chair, Tom Carper, D-Del., has joined as a cosponsor.
