Data center consolidation tops state CIOs to-do lists

By Wilson P. Dizard III

Connecting state and local government leaders

| August 20, 2007

State chief information officers agree that consolidating enterprise data centers is their most important task for the coming year, according to the National Association of State CIOs.

State IT organizations seek to consolidate their data facilities toimprove their service delivery, reinforce their ability to protectsystems and the data they contain, facilitate the reengineering ofbusiness processes, eliminate redundant capacity, reduce costs, andstreamline IT functions, according to NASCIO.As for the motives driving the states’ push to consolidatetheir data centers, the most important reason respondents cited wasto improve disaster recovery, a factor named in 82.8 percent ofcases. The goals of improving data replication, redundancy andfault tolerance were cited second, in 75.9 percent of cases, whilecost savings motives came in third at 65.5 percent of responses.

State chief information officers agree that consolidating
enterprise data centers is their most important task for the coming
year, according to a study released today by the National
Association of State CIOs (NASCIO).

The NASCIO study relied on responses from 29 states. The
association reported a strong trend toward “states
consolidating their computing assets into raised-floor, secured,
centralized data center facilities,” according to the
study.

“Many states are utilizing remote, backup data center
facilities for the purpose of backup and disaster recovery and
business continuity,” the association said.

State governments define “enterprise data center”
differently, the NASCIO study found. But the varying definitions
did not cloud the universal nature of the consolidation trend, the
association said.

The NASCIO report described the status of the survey
group’s consolidation programs:

Completed: 14 percent, or four out of 29

In progress or partially complete: 38 percent, or 11 of
29

Planning phase: 24 percent, or seven of 29

Proposed: 17 percent, or five of 29

No activity: 7 percent, or two of 29.

States responding to the survey reported that they had between
one and 100 data centers, and that the median number of centers was
15. The survey authors cautioned that variations in how the states
defined data centers caused part of the wide variation in the
center counts.

A high percentage of the states responding to the survey, 86.2
percent, said they planned to launch server virtualization projects
as new technology associated with their enterprise data center
consolidation projects.

The respondents also favored open source technology for use in
48.3 percent of their data center consolidation efforts, NASCIO
found.

State agencies also named storage area networks, consolidated
storage purchases, service oriented architecture, virtual servers
provisioning and application hosting as other new technologies they
planned to deploy in the consolidation projects.

NASCIO asked state IT leaders what obstacles or challenges they
faced as a result of their data center consolidation projects. The
most common responses were:

Workforce resistance to change: 89.7 percent

Agencies’ desire to remain autonomous: 86 percent

Problems experienced in moving localized devices away from
current customer base: 48.3 percent

Backlash when consolidation didn't meet specific business
needs: 20.7 percent

Unexpectedly high costs: 17.2 percent

Seeking exemptions from state statutory and regulatory
requirements: 17.2 percent

Seeking exemptions from federal statutory and regulatory
requirements: 17.2 percent and

Failure to identify and adhere to service levels: 3.4
percent.

NEXT STORY: States apply sensors to bridge conditions

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