Industry Says Not So Fast to OMB's Proposed Data Center Policy Changes

The first weekday of the shutdown, Dec. 26, was also the deadline for interested parties to comment on the administration’s draft Data Center Optimization Initiative policy update. The draft policy released in November extends restrictions on building new or expanding current federally-owned data centers and tweaks the metrics by which agencies’ closure and optimization efforts are measured. “Much of the ‘low-hanging’ fruit of easily consolidated infrastructure has been picked, and to realize further efficiencies will require continued investment to address the more complex areas where savings is achievable,” Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent wrote in the draft, establishing a focus on finding savings by optimizing the efficiency of current environments over closures. The draft still calls for agencies to continue reducing the number of data centers they manage, but those efforts will be targeted to areas with the biggest potential impact.