Venyu Blog

We know the federal government has firmly and diligently committed itself to cloud computing (The Continuing Crisis, January 19, Coming Soon, The World’s Most Secure Listening Device, January 28th), as has the private sector (Venyu Expands Footprint with New Datacenter Located in National Cyber Research Park). Now comes word that New York City ―The “Big Apple” itself ― is making its own “run” at cloud computing.

According to this article in InformationWeek, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed guests to the future home of the city’s new data center in downtown Brooklyn. The 18,000 square-foot facility will enable the city to “consolidate about 50 data centers from 40 city agencies” into a single location.

The Brooklyn-based datacenter ―a spoke in a wheel Mayor Bloomberg has christened Citywide IT Infrastructure Services (or CITIServ) is part of a larger program known as NYC Simplicity, aimed at making city government “more efficient, innovative, and customer-service oriented.”

The article goes on to detail that the city plans to consolidate its data centers into the new facility by 2014, an effort it expects will save $100 million.

While only the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment’s IT operations, the Department of Sanitation’s IT service desk, and the Department of Education’s HR Connect application have been moved onto CITIServ, the combined systems support 140,000 users. Once the IT environments of the city’s Department of Finance and Department of Citywide Administrative Services are consolidated into the facility, the city is expected to net several million dollars in incremental gains.

In his State of the City speech, Mayor Bloomberg pledged to achieve cost savings by reducing redundancies within City agencies, including information technology resources. This environment will provide agencies with the same secure and recoverable data centers that they currently manage individually, but through a shared structure allowing them to realize a number of significant benefits:

• Lower total cost of operations – By leveraging economies of scale the City can reduce energy and facilities costs. It is estimated that after completion of most data center consolidation efforts, the City could achieve $100 million in cost savings over five years.
• Reduced energy consumption and CO2emissions – Implementing CITIServ will do as much to reduce CO2 emissions as will planting 1,000,000 trees, helping achieve the PlaNYC goal of reducing the City’s carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2017.
• Strengthened security – CITIServ will allow the City to continue strengthening the physical security and cyber security of its data, while also improving its ability to respond to emergencies.
• Improved services for agencies – Enhanced 24×7 capabilities and improved reliability and performance of consolidated data centers will allow agencies to devote greater focus to their core business missions.

All-in-all this is a fascinating development and perhaps instructive of things to come. For years I’ve read all about visionary, bleeding-edge metropolitan architects and planners that have dreamed about city centers that are hubs of central commerce, serving both the living and work needs of the greater population. A great reflection of revitalization in the shadow of office towers rapidly emptied of their tenants anytime after 5pm workdays – it’s an interesting proposition, and a development worth watching.

So, I guess it’s no longer just a Tree That Grows In Brooklyn. Instead it’s a cloud that hovers over it, waiting out the next meaningful stage in its evolution.