While the federal government has mandated that nearly 40 percent (over 800) of its data centers be consolidated by 2015, the results of at least two recent studies indicate several concerns over the implications of the consolidation. According to the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), federal government data centers quadrupled between 1998 and 2010, from 432 to 2,094, and on average, they have only been using 27 percent of their computing power. As a result, federal CIOs are looking to consolidate effectively without compromising data center management by embracing server virtualization, shifting to a “cloud first” policy, and through modular computing.

Network Computing