The 24 agencies participating in the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative “have collectively made progress on their data center closures efforts,” GAO has said, saying that of the nearly 10,600 such centers identified, more than 3,100 have been closed.
Agriculture, Defense, Interior and Treasury accounted for 84 percent of closures, which were credited with an estimated $2.8 billion in savings and cost avoidances from 2011 to 2015, with the share at those departments about proportionate to the total.
Agencies are planning to close an additional 2,100 through fiscal 2019 for a projected total impact of $8.2 billion by that time, it said. That estimate may be low, it added, because some agencies planning further closures have not fully projected the potential savings.
It added, though, that of 24 agencies, 22 made limited progress toward OMB’s data center optimization performance metrics, such as the utilization of data center facilities. Of the nine metric targets, only one was met by even half of the 24 agencies, while the remaining eight were each met by less than half.
GAO recommended that the 22 improve optimization progress, including addressing any identified challenges, such as issues arising out of decentralization. Fourteen agreed and the rest either did not state whether they agreed or disagreed, or had no comment.
