Pentagon Won't Hit Own Goals for Closing Data Centers

The Pentagon will likely miss its internal goal for consolidating data centers, according to a new audit.

Even with plans to close more data centers, the Defense Department won’t be able to reduce its data centers by 60 percent by the end of the 2018 fiscal year, the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General found.

The department also did not meet a broad federal requirement that agencies close 40 percent of their data centers by  fiscal 2015 under the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative. DOD only closed about 18 percent of its data centers. 

The Office of Management and Budget established the effort in 2010 to shift IT investments to more efficient, less energy-consuming computing platforms.

By 2018, only about 44 percent of the Pentagon’s data centers will be closed, the audit claimed. The IG recommended DOD’s chief information officer, Terry Halvorsen, revise the department's strategy.

Halvorsen said he is “taking steps” to revise the Pentagon’s approach to data center consolidation, which will be completed by the end of 2016, according to the report. He said the department is integrating its cloud computing and data center consolidation programs into one “compute and storage strategy.”

Halvorsen also pointed out the department still has until the end of 2018 to meet the goals, so it is not yet delinquent on that goal, according to the audit.