By Barbara DePompa

Government organizations must overcome hefty challenges to meet evolving IT mission goals in 2009 as the impact of the ongoing economic crisis, along with wars overseas and an extensive economic stimulus program are complicating their efforts to modernize, consolidate and transform data center operations.

For instance, while a general rule for data center hardware has typically been three to five years between upgrade and/or replacement, in the current economic climate, government IT organizations are extending life cycles and leveraging legacy systems to squeeze more from existing IT assets, particularly servers, storage, and power equipment.

Meanwhile, regardless of the state of the economy, the amount of data to be managed continues to grow exponentially, especially as new types, such as video, continue to gain in popularity. At the same time, the sweeping changes ‘stimulated’ by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will likely have the biggest long term impact, making government data centers more capable, effective and energy efficient.

Economic stimulus package appropriations total $787.2 billion, with key funding initiatives to support technology, science and research, infrastructure improvements, education, energy, healthcare and training. Market research firm IDC estimates ARRA will generate more than $100 billion in technology spending in the next five years.

Ultimately, for most government IT organizations, the goal remains to provide unified, real-time access to information, as well as visibility agency-wide into data residing on disparate systems, while reducing learning curves and creating a collaborative environment for faster, better decision-making. However, pressures faced by government IT organizations include new political policies requiring alterations in direction/focus, ongoing space constraints, a need for more and better security and continuity of operations, along with greater demand for resource availability and energy efficiency.

The ARRA funding initiative has both helped and hindered IT modernization efforts, industry observers say. On the plus side, by relying heavily on current federal contracts to fulfill ARRA program requirements, the federal government has moved quickly to implement IT modernization within Foreign Services, the State Department and the Social Security Administration, for examples.

However, for many government organizations, ARRA is testing their ability to adapt to the changing priorities of a new presidential administration, as well as constituent demands for more and better services. When agencies use ARRA to set new operational processes into motion, the workforce, systems, capabilities and reporting systems struggle to keep pace with change.

At a recent conference on the Economic Stimulus program, hosted by 1105 Government Information Group, Mary Davie, assistant commissioner, Office of Assisted Acquisition Services, said the GSA is working with all agencies that ask for help on the reporting requirements for ARRA. Interestingly, federal agencies are also seeking GSA’s assistance “in providing general IT and professional services, while they work on projects that allocate stimulus funding,” she said.

Successful modernization efforts will likely hinge on how well agencies can bridge the gap between desktop computing, web-based collaboration and enterprise-level applications, according to federal tech industry veteran, Jorge Fuster, founder and principal of VirtualFedTeam, a federal IT staffing resources organization.

To simplify operations, conserve resources, streamline systems management, leverage legacy systems and manage applications most government IT organizations are putting increased emphasis on strategic planning, which includes:

* Modernizing IT infrastructure to support government requirements;

* Securing information and assets;

* Integration of large and complex agency systems;

* Overcoming organizational and cultural barriers.

The good news, according to federal market research firm INPUT, is that despite the economic downturn, the ARRA program is helping agencies move forward on key IT modernization goals by allocating funding for a wide array of initiatives. Early funding initiatives related to transportation and education are already having a direct impact on state and local government budgets, according to Deniece Peterson, a principal analyst for INPUT in Reston, Va. “As monies are doled out for transportation improvements, for example, that in turn, frees other state and local funding for technology-related initiatives,” she explained.

To deliver services for government personnel, partners and constituents, federal agency leaders must evaluate technologies and services to help modernize operations and achieve compliance with the usual government regulations, along with new policies that strive for greater transparency in ARRA funding initiatives. In general, government IT organizations are working to automate operational processes, increase analytic ‘intelligence,’ manage risks, reduce costs, lower downtime and service interruptions and strengthen security protections that cover government information and resources. In fact, “automation is the driving force behind most IT modernization efforts today,” said Andi Mann, vice president of research for Enterprise Management Associates, Inc., in Boulder, Colo.

There are several disciplines involved in the automation boom, he explained, pointing to tools that can assist in improving performance, availability management, provisioning software, and regular backups. “The goal is to take out the human factor where possible to help data centers both in the public and private sectors to achieve greater efficiency and lower costs,” he explained.

EMA recently surveyed 239 different IT organizations and found that when they invested in data center automation, the average staff cost reduction totaled $500,000 per year. While reducing management costs is the biggest driver for ongoing data center automation efforts, Mann said, “Reducing the potential for security breaches and enabling IT staff to move away from ‘firefighting’ and on to more strategic IT planning were two key benefits from greater automation.”

Throughout the computer industry, the pendulum has swung toward a general preference for software that’s centrally located, as opposed to programs that run on a user’s personal machine. The combination of high-speed networks, sophisticated processors and fast, inexpensive servers and disk storage is driving more government computing into data centers. The current climate is also driving the advent of virtualization and has led to much publicity surrounding its technological cousin, cloud computing. Cloud computing is made possible by the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, cheap, powerful chips and disk drives, and the development of data centers that house hundreds or thousands of computers to quickly serve sophisticated software to legions of users.

By utilizing technologies such as virtualization and using storage equipment that can scale to accommodate future storage needs, customers can avoid expensive rip-and-replace upgrades and extend the life cycles of their existing assets.

Government data center administrators are also stretching storage life cycles, via automated tools that support tiered storage and storage resource management (SRM). Through the addition of advanced SRM tools, for example, agencies can reduce storage costs by simplifying storage administration, and create a more streamlined continuity of operations strategy, along with better reporting on storage usage and energy costs.

Moving forward, the goal for federal agencies will be to create an advanced data center infrastructure that consolidates and simplifies the management and administration of government information to more quickly and efficiently deliver services to users. An open systems approach is crucial, as is a more automation to create the efficient, secure and cost-effective data centers of the future.