PSC Urges White House to Set Bold Goals for Federal Data Center Optimization Efforts

Arlington, Va. (Jan. 11, 2019) – The Professional Services Council (PSC) submitted recommendations to the White House on Dec. 26, 2018, stressing the importance of continued data center optimization efforts to achieve a high-performance government and save taxpayer dollars. PSC’s recommendations came in response to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) request for feedback on a proposed update to the DCOI.

PSC welcomed the effort to update the federal data center policy but urged changes to emphasize the importance of the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) for achieving the President’s broader goals for modernizing government and leveraging American innovation. PSC recommends prioritizing migration from government-owned data centers to contractor-provided cloud computing technologies. PSC also emphasized opportunities to take advantage of state-of-the-art data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools and virtualization for federal data centers that will not be transitioned to the cloud.

“Ultimately, the goal of updating [the data center policy] should be to help achieve the vision of a high-performance government…. Continuing to optimize federal data centers can save taxpayer resources and allow agencies to better leverage their data as a strategic resource to improve citizen services and deliver on their mission,” wrote PSC executive vice president and counsel Alan Chvotkin in a letter to Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent. 

Chvotkin emphasized that the “updated DCOI policy should not be a simple revision [to] this decade-long IT rationalization effort [but] rather… a bold initiative to support digital transformation across the federal government.”

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Media Contact: 
Ashlei Stevens
Director, Media Relations
703.875.8974 stevens@pscouncil.org 

About PSC: PSC is the voice of the government technology and professional services industry. PSC’s nearly 400 member companies represent small, medium and large businesses that provide federal agencies with services of all kinds, including information technology, engineering, logistics, facilities management, operations and maintenance, consulting, international development, scientific, social, environmental services, and more. Together, the trade association’s members employ hundreds of thousands of Americans in all 50 states. Follow PSC on Twitter @PSCSpeaks. To learn more, visit www.pscouncil.org.