Data Centers Continue Their Starring Role

Around this same time last year we wrote about the federal government's focus on consolidating data centers for better IT efficiency. The Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) that is driving changes across government has extended its deadlines for agency compliance. Originally, agencies were to meet a variety of consolidation, energy efficiency, and cost reduction goals by the end of calendar year 2018. With fewer than one in five Federal data center leaders saying that their data center was on track to meet their DCOI goals, an extension seemed inevitable. Now, agencies have until 2020 to install energy metering tools, use automated monitoring and operations, maximize floor space use in existing data centers, reduce data center costs by 25%, in addition to a number of other cost savings and efficiency goals.

In addition to DCOI, agencies are also looking to comply with the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT) that looks at government IT as a whole, incorporating data centers into the overall plans to modernize how government procures and uses technology for citizen service.

A third driver for modernizing the data center is the desire to do more with the data we have. No longer is a data center a place to store information, it is a place to interact with information.

With a continued focus on data center efficiency, we wanted to provide a quick list of events that can help inform agency strategies as they look to meet both federal and user requirements.

• Face to Face Digital Transformation (June 13; Washington. DC) - Organized by 1105 Media, this event focuses on the digital transformation going on in government. Looking beyond simply replacing legacy infrastructure, this event examines how modern government IT should be architected including the data center's role.
• VMworld (August 26-30; Las Vegas, NV) - This conference goes well beyond being a showcase for VMware products. It is a well-respected venue for sharing what is new in data center modernization approaches to include cloud, virtual machines, and more. Multiple vendors, industry luminaries, technology experts, and practitioners take part in this annual event.
• IT Modernization Conference @930gov (August 28; Washington, DC) - This conference looks at how agencies can modernize to more easily achieve mission objectives and improve service delivery and performance. It brings together Government IT, program management, acquisition professionals and their teams to review FY2019 plans and explore new opportunities.
• ATARC Federal Data and Analytics Summit (October 23; Washington, DC) - This one-day symposium will examine data & analytic products and solutions being utilized by the Federal Government to provide agencies with increased efficiency and cost savings. The event features discussion and white-boarding between government and industry subject matter experts in a small-group setting. The outcomes of these sessions will be compiled in a white paper with recommendations to the government.

Let us know where you are learning about data center trends and best practices in the comments.