Do feds believe in data center consolidation?

Survey finds IT pros see the benefits but have doubts about the execution

• By Kevin McCaney
• Jul 09, 2010

In June, the White House issued a memo that ordered agencies to dispose of unnecessary federal real estate and further defined the requirements of the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, which it announced in February.

But do agencies see the plan as realistic?

In May, MeriTalk and NetApp surveyed federal information technology professionals to see how they viewed the goals set earlier in the original announcement of the consolidation initiative. Although respondents recognize the benefits of consolidation, they have doubts about how quickly the number of servers can be reduced, if at all.

On the subject of cloud computing, respondents seemed to accept that it’s on the way, but most aren’t holding their breath for a cloud environment coming any time soon.

How long will it take your agency to move to cloud computing as its primary processing environment?

Click for larger image. Source: MeriTalk