Federal Manager's Daily Report

GSA said the optimization initiative “is the next logical step in the history of federal data centers, following the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative launched by OMB in 2010, to achieve cost savings through consolidation of redundant federal data centers. With the aggregate cost of operations, changing hosting options, and the ever-increasing need for better information security, optimizing our infrastructure is a sound investment and the right thing to do.”

It cited assistance to agencies that already has been developed in response to the earlier initiative, including:

* Identifying and reviewing tools that agencies can use to monitor, measure, manage and/or control data center utilization and energy consumption of IT-related equipment.

* Drawing a blueprint for agencies to access shared services.

* Creating a qualification process for agencies and private sector companies to become inter-agency shared service providers and developing common service and financial models.

* Investigating best practices in selecting services to store data online vs. on-site.

* Reaching out to industry to identify best practices for shared services and tools to support automated infrastructure management.

* Building a data center community of practice for policy managers, data center program managers, facilities managers, and sustainability officers at executive agencies to collaborate on strategies.