Why the US Government has so many data centers

Mon Mar 14 14:53:34 UTC 2016

On 3/13/16, Sean Donelan wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Mar 2016, Lee wrote:
>> Where does it say test/dev has to be done solely in a cloud data
>> center?  This bit
>>   For the purposes of this memorandum, rooms with at least one
>> server, providing
>>   services (whether in a production, test, stage, development, or any
>> other
>>   environment), are considered data centers.
>> seems to be more about trying to close the self-reporting loophole -
>> ie 'these aren't the droids you're looking for.'   for example -
>> https://github.com/WhiteHouse/datacenters/issues/9
>
> Sigh, read any Inspector General report for how memorandums are
> implemented by auditors.  If the memorandum says "or any other
> environment" the IG's will treat that as no exceptions.
>
> So IG's will "close the reporting loophole" by reporting that their are
> 100,000 "data centers" if a room contains  even a single server.
>
> Auditors like counting things, they don't like interpretations.  Inspector
> Generals are uber-auditors.

uhmmm.. yes - that's my point.  No more of the "Whut?  That box over
there??  Oh no, that's not a server, it's an _appliance_"
foot-dragging / circumvention of the cloud first policy.

I doubt anyone really believes that having a server in the room makes
it a data center.  But if you're the Federal CIO pushing the cloud
first policy, this seems like a great bureaucratic maneuver to get the
decision making away from the techies that like redundant servers in
multiple locations, their managers who's job rating depends on
providing reliable services and even the agency CIOs.  Check the
reporting section of the memo where it says "each agency head shall
annually publish a Data Center Consolidation and Optimization
Strategic Plan".   I dunno, but I'm guessing agency heads are
political appointees that aren't going to spend much, if any, time
listening to techies whine about how important their servers are & why
they can't be consolidated, virtualized or outsourced.

Lee