The Energy Department has announced that many more federal agencies along with private companies and national labs have joined the Administration’s Better Buildings Challenge to drive greater efficiency in US data centers.
New partners include national labs, the EPA, DoD, the Social Security Administration and companies such as eBay and Staples. They have committed to reducing energy use in their data centers by 20 percent over the next decade, Energy said, adding that upgrades being undertaken also compliment the installation of new emerging IT systems or technologies.
Some federal agencies have more readily consolidated or closed data centers under the White House’s data center consolidation initiative. That initiative recently got a boost in the Senate, which approved legislation that would step up agency reporting requirements and set firm deadlines. Agencies estimate that they could save over $5 billion through these efforts, but GAO said savings could actually be over $2 billion more because of difficulty agencies have had estimating baseline costs.
