DCOI Takes Over Data Center Consolidation Efforts

The new Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) aims to reverse continued data center sprawl and at the same time, modernize – a better approach than the original FDCCI.

There has been consolidation progress. A recent blog post by Federal CIO Tony Scott, shares that FDCCI has helped the Federal government close more than 1,900 data centers, reducing the real estate footprint of Federal data centers by more than 1.2 million square feet, and resulting in nearly $1 billion in savings.

But, we’re not there yet. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the number of Federal data centers grew to 11,700 by November 2015 – up from more than 9,000 in 2014, 2,100 in 2011, and 1,100 in 2009 – as we were trying to reduce.

DCOI takes a more holistic approach, with a development freeze on current and new data centers, continued consolidation strategies, cloud investment under Cloud First, and an expanded shared services initiative. And, DCOI lays out specific optimization goals around power efficiency, automated infrastructure management, and server and facility utilization.

DCOI shows we’ve learned from our success and failures over the past few years, and agencies have high hopes for this initiative. According to a recent article, “The DCOI could be the best thing to happen to Federal cloud adoption in a while.”

Is Your Agency Prepared? 

The DCOI will focus on three primary areas within agencies’ data center management strategies:

• Optimization: Agencies will be required to achieve five optimization targets that will improve the efficiency of Federal data centers – energy metering, power usage effectiveness, virtualization, server utilization and automated monitoring, and facility utilization

• Cost Savings and Avoidance: By the end of fiscal year 2018, agencies must reduce Government-wide annual costs attributable to physical data centers by at least 25%

• Closed Data Centers: Agencies must close at least 25% of tiered data centers, and 60% of non-tiered data centers, government-wide by the end of 2018

As noted by Federal CIO Tony Scott, “The important work agencies are undertaking as part of the DCOI will help move the Federal government toward an IT portfolio that is more efficient, more effective, more secure, and better able to deliver world-class services to the American people.”

To meet DCOI goals, agencies need modern data centers. At EMC, we believe this means the data center is built on a series of components:  flash, cloud-enabled, scale-out, and software-defined technologies, to help achieve efficiency and utilization goals, power shared services, and automate & simplify. Learn more in my recent blog post:  Technology Foundation for the Modern Data Center.

Author information

Barry Morris

Vice President, Dell EMC Federal Division

Barry Morris, Vice President of Dell EMC’s Federal Division, is responsible for general division management, providing leadership and vision to the Federal team, government contractors and partners, and Federal systems integrators. In this role, he is dedicated to helping agencies redefine IT in a more agile, trusted, and cost-efficient way. Morris brings 30 years of experience driving sales to the Federal government, and expanding coverage into the state and local government, education, and medical markets.

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