By: Fred Messing
The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI) was driven by the recognition that growth in the number of Federal data centers was an inefficient use of Federal resources. Consolidation offers the prospect of expanding information technology benefits while reducing their costs to align with declining budget forecasts. Each consolidated data center will manage a larger portion of the Government’s information technology portfolio resulting in proportionately higher mission impact from any infrastructure failure. Similarly, each consolidated data center will have a larger responsibility for minimizing environmental impact and power costs. FDCCI goals will be fully realized only if adequate planning and execution result in high-availability energy-efficient data centers. This paper discusses concepts and tools for planning and managing high-availability energy-efficient consolidated data centers.