Feds to close more than 20 data centers in Md.
Washington correspondent John Fritze reports:
The federal government plans to close more than 20 data centers in Maryland by the end of 2012, part of a nationwide effort to reduce redundancy and save money on electricity-hungry computer servers, the White House said Wednesday.
Officials expect to close 373 centers nationwide by the end of next year and 800 by 2025, an effort the Office of Management and Budget estimates will save taxpayers more than $3 billion.
The centers, which typically house computer equipment, can be as large as a building or as small as a closet.
In one example cited by the White House, the Treasury Department will close a roughly 13,000-square-foot facility in Lanham.
According to OMB, that data center hosts 250 servers and costs taxpayers more than $400,000 a year in leasing and electricity costs. In addition to the cost of powering the servers themselves, the equipment usually requires round-the-clock air conditioning and heating.
“With data centers that run as large as three and a half football fields, shutting down excess datacenters will save taxpayers billions of dollars by cutting costs for infrastructure, real estate and energy,” U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said in a statement.
The number of data centers managed by the federal government has increased from 432 to more than 2,000 since 1998, according to the OMB. Those facilities have been using only 27 percent of their computing capacity.
There typically are few jobs associated with the centers.
Data provided by OMB show that the federal government has already closed 13 sites in Maryland, most in Greenbelt and Bethesda. Those that remain to be closed include a Department of Transportation facility in Baltimore and a Department of Homeland Security center in Abingdon.
The government’s effort to cut down on server farms follows similar moves in the private sector, which has relied increasingly on cloud servers to store certain data on the internet.
It also comes after OMB announced in May that it would sell off or demolish 320 industrial buildings in Maryland.
Comments
Looks like the unemployment rate is about to increase again.
Posted by: Dave | July 20, 2011 5:38 PM
Not really. Data centers usually are unmanned.
Posted by: Able Baker | July 20, 2011 5:51 PM
When they close those energy wasting computer servers, will they replace them with paper pushers?
Posted by: oldtimer | July 20, 2011 6:25 PM
If you fully read the article unemploment would not be a big increase since not many jobs are at risk. Also there wouldn't be a need for paper pushers since there running at 27% capacity. Which is why there closing many of them since there not needed.
Posted by: Bruce Kramer | July 20, 2011 7:09 PM
Welcome to Martyland.
What's in YOUR wallet.
Not that this is a bad thing to do, but....
Watch out for the Oh So Special Session.
Will the Obama regime "compensate" Martin for the loss of jobs? And notice the article did not mention the number of jobs lost! Curious isn't it?
All the detailed numbers of square footage, computing power, site numbers, exact number ofservers involved.
Not one mention of job losses?
Is this paper that biased? If you did not receive that information in the press release you just pass along as news, would you not ask? What were the w's what wheres when why who that ALL reporters USED to use?
This reporting is disgraceful.
Posted by: George M Dallas | July 20, 2011 9:07 PM
"If you fully read the article unemploment would not be a big increase since not many jobs are at risk.Posted by: Bruce Kramer"
As I mentioned, there is really no word on employment in this article is there?
A vague reference only. How about the building maintenance jobs? The HVAC jobs? The landscaping jobs? The computer hardware specialists jobs?
There is more jobs than you may think involved with these facilities.
BUT as I said, this is not a bad thing, just don't minimize it.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 20, 2011 9:14 PM
I don't understand why they keep cutting costs on taxpayers, Social Security, Medicare but they keep funding illegal alien programs.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 21, 2011 9:41 AM