The federal government has begun what looms as the largest data center consolidation in history, hoping to dramatically reduce IT operations that are currently distributed among more than 1,100 data centers.

On Friday Federal CIO Vivek Kundra outlined details of the ambitious plan in a memo that directs federal agencies to prepare an inventory of the IT assets by April 30 and develop a preliminary data center consolidation plan by June 30. These plans will need to be finalized by Dec. 31, 2010, with implementation beginning in 2011.

Huge Implications for Data Center Sector
The government data center consolidation has huge implications for the fortunes of system integrators, data center service providers (especially in northern Virginia), and cloud computing platforms optimized for hosting government apps.

The consolidation effort figures to generate significant business for companies providing energy efficiency tools and consulting, as Kundra signaled that reducing energy costs will be a driving force in the effort. He noted that the number of government data centers soared from 432 in 1999 to the current 1,100 plus.

“This growth in redundant infrastructure investments is costly, inefficient and unsustainable and has a significant impact on energy consumption,” said Kundra. “In 2006 Federal servers and data centers consumed 6 billion kwH of electricity, and without a fundamental shift in how we deploy technology it could reach 12 billion kwH by 2012.”

First Assessment Due April 30
The immediate challenge: Federal agencies must conduct a “high-level assessment” of all their IT assessments and data centers by April 30, followed by a more detailed accounting by July 30.

In announcing the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, Kundra outlined four high-level goals:

* Promote the use of Green IT by reducing the overall energy and real estate footprint of government data centers;
* Reduce the cost of data center hardware, software and operations;
* Increase the overall IT security posture of the government;
* Shift IT investments to more efficient computing platforms and technologies.

That last bullet point is boosting expectations that a meaningful chunk of government IT operations will be shifted to a cloud computing model. Kundra discussed this prospect at an appearance Friday, saying the federal government is looking for “game-changing approaches” to deal with the problematic growth in data centers rather than “brute force consolidation.”

“This is a huge opportunity to apply best practices from the private sector,” Kundra told Federal Computer Week. “It is a huge problem. The path we are on does not make sense.”

Likely to Boost Data Center Demand
But the cloud model won’t make sense for all federal applications. If recent consolidations by companies like HP and Intel are any indication, the drive for greater efficiency will render many of the current data center properties obsolete. Many older data facilities do not have the power capacity to support a highly-utilized equipment space. Consolidation also leads to higher densities, which are more difficult to cool in legacy facilities.

That means new data center space, most likely in northern Virginia and Maryland. Systems integrators and companies building cloud platforms have been among the players driving demand for data center space in northern Virginia, where demand has been strong and new supply has been limited. As the federal consolidation moves ahead, that demand is likely to increase as federal agencies identify new requirements.

The federal consolidation is also likely to be good news for server vendors, as consolidations usually include hardware refreshes to take advantage of the latest advances in computing power and energy efficiency.

The Internet has provided a number of benefits to both businesses and governments as it provides the ability to move information to a number of different locations very quickly. It also allows organizations to drive transparency, a key demand among government entities. In an effort to be more transparent, federal agencies are implementing initiatives to move more information to the Internet. This move will also help to drive collaboration between federal government, local government and citizens. One agency in particular recently required an optimization of their existing network and a network upgrade to support the additional traffic to its site as a result of moving more information and supporting collaboration.

This particular agency operates multiple facilities and data centers stretching between 78 cities and 24 states, making it necessary to find a way to consolidate their network to find management and cost efficiencies. At the same time, this agency also needed to increase capacity on the network to support new applications. Read More

In the age of intelligibility, many Federal Agencies are now looking for ways to move more information to the Internet in order to provide an easier way for the Federal Government, Local Government and the citizens to collaborate on topics our nation is facing today. CFN Services was faced with a similar challenge not too long ago, when a federal agency wanted to upgrade their network in order to support the additional traffic that they would be experiencing in the near future. This agency had already multiple facilities and data centers, which stretch between 78 cities and 24 states, the agency needed to find a way to consolidate their network and to find some management and cost efficiencies as well. The challenge that CFN Services was faced with was how to couple the network optimization project with the agency’s goal to increase capacity on their network to help support the new applications that were coming online.

CFN then created a business case and pricing inputs for the SONET OC12/OC45 services as well as Dark Fiber.  They then conducted a study and established that a hybrid SONET and Dark Fiber would be able to prove the agency with the best cost efficiencies while allowing their network to grow. CFN then took on a partner role and dealt with the negotiations with the contracts and lease schedules for the acquisitions of the needed wavelengths as well as the dark fiber rings.  CFN then managed all the deliveries and acceptance of the networks as well as conducted all the tests and verifications.  Soon after the Federal Agency contacted CFN Services, asking them to help find a way to grow the network, while at the same time reducing the company’s transport costs. CFN Services worked it out with contractors so that the costs for the dark and lit fibers would be only paid by the operational cost for the government.

To read more about this case study, visit CFN Services site.

Data Center Location Services

If you are a data center provider, location is everything to your success. Your customers want to be able to ensure they have access to the fiber routes they need. Partnering with CFN Services allows you to utilize FiberSource®, so we can work together to ensure your data center strategy maximizes the ability for multiple fiber providers that you can intern offer your customers.

Financial and Trading Institutions

Operate in a dynamic environment where milliseconds can mean the difference of dollars. Lowering the latency on the network, can be that difference. CFN is the leader in low latency solutions for trading firms.Read More

Healthcare Solutions

“Mortality rates are 7.2% LOWER in the ‘most wired’ hospitals” according to Hospitals and Health Networks magazine  Working with the Carriers and Data Centers ; CFN Services can provide a fully managed network solution that will provide you the reliability, security and scalability required to meet your set objectives. Read More

Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing,

all the buzz, is only as reliable as the network it runs on. Ensure your applications are always available by partnering with CFN Services. We are the only provider to offer Latency level SLA; coupled with a Latency Level Improvement plan.

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A leading content provider wanted to create a global content network and they wanted this network to be tested in 32 sites that were found in North America, South America, Europe and Asia to help with the economic costs of the services that would be needed to create this network. The provider wanted to know the economics of using SONET, wavelength or dark fiber services for this project. In order to design a network solution and business case for metro, intercity, and intercontinental fiber based transport.
CFN Services reviewed the 32 sites across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia to determine economics of using SONET, wavelength and dark fiber networks to reach each designated site. CFN Services then identified Tier 1 Internet peering points and collocation facilities in 22 cities and then created preliminary fiber network ring designs to connect all the facilities. This was followed up with CFN Services establishing business case inputs for optical transport equipment and management services, SONET, wavelength and dark fiber services. This allowed CFN Services to provide their customer with end to end network design and architecture based on business case recommendations. This information then was used to manage the procurement and integration of all SONET, wavelength and dark fiber services together and to help build the fiber network extensions to interconnect off-net facilities with the core network fiber ring. Once the networks were completed CFN Services then began to create ways to manage the engineering, furnishing, and installation of all the optical transport as well as the end-to-end test, acceptance, and turn up the network.
To read more on this case study visit CFN Services Webpage