As part of the Office of Management Budget’s (OMB) efforts to close down more than 800 federal data centers by 2015, the administration announced that it will close about 178 data centers in 2012 – including 60 in the Washington D.C. area.
By the end of 2011, close to 195 data centers will be shut down – up from the 137 that were originally announced to be closed. This will bring the total to 373 by the end of next year. The government has already shut down 81 centers.
According to U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, this decision was made as part of a broader effort to improve federal information technology programs and also is a part of President Obama’s Campaign to Cut Waste, an effect to eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency across the federal government. This decision move is expected save taxpayers more than $3 billion.
The Department of Defense will see the greatest reduction with over 60 closings and the Department of Agriculture will lose approximately 25 centers. Although D.C. is set to close about 60 centers, the rest of the centers are spread out all over the country – with some locations not disclosed yet. These closures will provide significant cost savings, especially on utilities.
“A typical data center will consume as much as 200 [times]the electricity of a standard office space,” Kundra said.
For a complete list of data centers that will be closed, click here.