On or off campus, that's the question for Social Security's new data center

If the Social Security Administration's data center -- which stores 450 million earnings and benefits records -- suddenly crashed, the agency's operations would come to a near standstill for seven days, a top agency official told a House panel on Wednesday.

It would take SSA a week to transfer computer tapes to a commercial backup computer facility to recover the data, which the agency uses to issue Social Security numbers and administer benefits, Michael Gallagher, SSA deputy commissioner for budget, finance and management, told the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. But the backup facility provides only about 25 percent to 30 percent of the capacity needed to run critical applications, he added.

Because backup operations are lacking, SSA started building its own secondary data center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., in May. That center stores 400 million medical records used to issue electronic disability claims and also provides redundant connections to SSA offices nationwide, including providing them with Internet access.

But the North Carolina facility will not become fully functional until 2012, testified Patrick O'Carroll, the inspector general at SSA. He defined fully functional as "restoring critical functions within 24 hours of a disaster, with less than one hour of data loss."

While the agency works on a backup data center, officials are considering how to replace their primary data center, the 39-year-old National Computer Center at SSA's headquarters in Woodlawn, Md..

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $500 million for the new data center, the largest single federal building project funded by the stimulus bill. SSA and the General Services Administration are conducting a search for a new site within 40 miles of the headquarters facility.

Building the data center on a site off the Woodlawn campus would be cheaper than building a new center on site, according to a Booz Allen Hamilton study released in February. Building a new center off campus would cost $748 million compared with $803 million on campus, O'Carroll said.

Booz Allen also recommended locating the data center off campus for the following reasons:

-- Preconstruction activities, such as rezoning, increases the risk of the project.

-- Service could be disrupted due to power outages during construction.

-- The operations and maintenance costs are higher for the on-campus data center.

But the costs between the two alternatives should be reviewed in more detail, according to a draft study by Strategic e-Business Solutions Inc. in Bethesda, Md. "Since an on-campus project would be a significantly different undertaking than an off-campus one, there is a sense that apples are perhaps being compared to oranges, and that these differing factors need to be considered more carefully before a decision is made as to whether a new data center in Woodlawn is a viable option," O'Carroll said.

Rob Hewell, regional commissioner for the Public Buildings Service's Mid-Atlantic Region at GSA, told lawmakers the agency has looked at more than 150 potential sites for the data center and plans to purchase one in March 2010.