OMB Promotes Virtualization in New Data Center Guidance

The federal government has clearly made progress on consolidating its data centers, but now the Office of Management and Budget wants to go after more than just the easy wins of shuttering aging data center facilities. Late in November, OMB issued updated guidance that effectively forms a new data center optimization policy under the Trump administration. The guidance, which is open to public comment through Dec. 26, would replace the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) memorandum M-16-19, which was issued in August 2016.  Under the new guidance, OMB is prioritizing the increased virtualization of federal IT systemin. The guidance also imposes a broad freeze on the construction of new data centers, stating that agencies “may not budget any funds or resources toward initiating a new data center or significantly expanding an existing data center without approval from OMB,” although there is an exemption for data centers that qualify as “key mission facilities for data management.”