The Senate before recessing until after the elections approved legislation to expedite the consolidation of federal data centers, setting hard deadlines and requiring agencies that have yet to act on consolidation initiatives to conduct inventories and implement consolidation strategies.
The Federal Data Center Consolidation Act was introduced in October 2013 by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. and would require GAO to verify agency data center inventories, as well as direct OMB to report to Congress on cost savings.
OMB announced the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative in 2010, estimating that it could save $3 billion by 2015. GAO recently issued a report saying that savings estimates for data center consolidations are actually understated because agencies have had trouble calculating baseline costs.
Agencies estimate they can save $5.3 billion over the fiscal 2011 – 2017 span by consolidating data centers, but according to GAO, some agencies with planned cost savings are underreporting their fiscal 2012 – 2015 saving by over $2.2 billion.
