Sen. Carper Commends Administration Decision to Shut Down Additional Duplicative Data Centers

WASHINGTON – Today, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, commended the Obama Administration’s announcement that it will shut down a total of 373 duplicative data centers by the end of 2012, including 178 in 2012 alone. His statement on the announcement follows:

“The American people are weary of a Federal government that wastes scarce taxpayer dollars on assets it doesn’t need. There’s probably no better example than the $80 billion we spend each year on information technology. The Federal government has consistently thrown good money after bad and built an IT infrastructure that is bloated, inefficient, and actually makes it more difficult for the government to serve its citizens.

“Before President Obama and Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra started their efforts to get better control of IT spending, the federal government didn’t even know how many data centers it had. Since then, we’ve found out that there are over 2,000 data centers bleeding energy and money throughout the federal government. I’m happy to hear that, between now and the end of 2012, 373 of these data centers will be shuttered. That leaves us with a little more than 400 still to go if we are to reach the President’s goal of closing 800 by 2015. But these first few rounds may be the ‘low-hanging fruit’ or perhaps the fruit already on the ground. That’s why it’s so important that we keep up this momentum and push forward on this initiative. I look forward to working with the President and my colleagues here in Congress to reach the goals laid out in our ongoing effort to get better results for less money for the American people.”

Recently, Sen. Carper was joined by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in introducing the Information Technology Investment Management Act of 2011, which seeks to better monitor the federal government’s $80 billion information technology (IT) portfolio and requires troubled projects be fixed or terminated.

Next week, Sen. Carper and Vivek Kundra will host a panel of federal, state, and private sector information technology officials to discuss the status of data center consolidation efforts in the federal government and the advantages and challenges of moving government information technology to a ‘cloud-based’ approach. The Cloud Computing and Federal Data Center Consolidation Thought Leadership event will take place on Wednesday, July 27 from 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center Room SVC 201, Washington, DC.

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