In April, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report to Congress on the current status of the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) — the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) directive to optimize and consolidate data centers to deliver better services to the public while increasing return on investment (ROI) to taxpayers. According to the report, in August 2018, out of a total of 12,166 agency-owned data centers, the government had closed 6,250 of them and planned to close 1,200 additional ones.
This accounted for a total of $2.36 billion in planned savings from fiscal years 2016 through 2018, which is about $370 million less than OMB’s goal for overall DCOI savings. In the midst of these consolidation efforts, agencies are also attempting to adhere to the administration’s Cloud Smart policy as well as increase the adoption of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the IoT. This progress underscores the federal government’s added layers of complexity and ongoing optimization efforts — and demands — when considering a strategy for data and information storage and processing requirements.