Venyu Blog

My recent post (February 23^rd, with their Heads in the Clouds: Your Government at Work), has spawned a sequel. And, true to form, it’s subject matter is on par with the level of response to cloud computing you’d expect from those lined up on either side of the Washington beltway.  In the immortal words of one-time host of Family Feud, Richard Dawson, “Survey Says!”

On Friday February 26^th Information Week reported that the federal government has initiated a 6-month survey of its existing data centers in an effort to benchmark them as it embarks on a major government-wide data center consolidation effort. The survey will analyze the government’s 1,100-plus data centers, counting racks, servers, routers and switches to measure hardware utilization.

The article points out that in a 2009 survey, the Office of Management & Budget discovered that the number of data centers had ballooned to more than 150% in the last dozen years alone, from 432 in 1998 to its present 1100+ level in 2010.  In this case more isn’t necessarily better. According to federal CIO Vivek Kundra, who is spearheading data center “optimizations” by moving select applications into the cloud, only 15-20% of all federal agencies are taking advantage of the full capacity of their data centers. According to Kundra, the survey will “figure out how big the problem is and how our strategy should evolve.” 

Make no mistake.  I’m glad to see someone in the federal government taking charge of underutilized data centers.  While cloud computing is not entirely a panacea for what ails the federal government it’s change that, once applied, provides numerous benefits.

But on the other side of the fence isn’t this survey the equivalent of having the fox count the number of chickens in the henhouse because the farmer doesn’t have the time to count them for himself? Well-placed and probably well-meaning government officials have been appointed to head up the survey but do you honestly expect that a 50% improvement in data center utilization (e.g. 20-30%, for example) is enough of a leap to call this survey a success?  (And trust me that I use the 50% figure as the most optimistic outcome).

Only time will tell what becomes of the results of this survey.  In my experience, however, the hardest part of a survey is not in formulation, but execution. Kind of like cloud computing itself. More information here: