Government plans to shut down 100 data centers this year

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

As the government continues to transition from on-premise IT solutions to the cloud, federal CIO Vivek Kundra recently said it plans to shut down 100 data centers by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports.

Speaking to a Senate subcommittee, the CIO said the government's goal is to eliminate 800 of its data centers by 2015 - a move that will enable the government to reduce its IT spending dramatically.

According to Kundra, data center consolidation and cloud computing will be key components to accomplishing this goal. By deploying services in the cloud, the government can shift some of the responsibility of data storage away from agencies to cloud services vendors, which are often better prepared to handle growing data volumes and provide greater protection services.

Kundra also noted that the government plans to spend nearly $20 billion of its estimated $80 billion IT budget on cloud services and technology.

Earlier this year, Kundra introduced a 25-point reform plan that encouraged federal agencies to adopt more cloud computing solutions. According to his report, the cloud will reduce a number of inefficiencies in government IT and also allow taxpayer money to go further.