July 29th, 2011, By Dana Haugh
This past decade has produced quite a number of technological innovations, but the one that takes the cake has to be “cloud” computing. The movement toward virtual space storage and away from cumbersome, vulnerable sites dedicated to housing hardware has officially taken hold and the government has jumped on the bandwagon. This year, the federal government is planning to close at least 130 data centers, mainly centered in the Washington D.C. area, and another 600 in 2012. The movement is being coined the “cloud first” policy and it’s set to eliminate hundreds of federal facilities throughout the country, effectively downsizing the government’s tangible technological footprint by utilizing recent advancements. The Federal CIO has sought out recommendations over the last 18 months on how to improve IT efficiently and systematically over this large-scale process.
As a result, a 25-point action plan was established, set to be implemented over the next year and a half. The Federal CIO wants to reduce the amount of data centers by at least 800 in the next 4 years, terminate at least one-third of underperforming projects in the IT portfolio in the coming year and shift into the “Cloud First” policy by encouraging each agency to identify and move three necessary services over to the cloud within the 18 month period.
Unfortunately for all those looking to acquire these potential properties and soon-to-be vacant sites, the news isn’t good. Many of the buildings are run by the Department of Defense and therefore will never be identified due to security issues.
All information gathered from CoStar