Navy uses only a fraction of its data storage space

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy and Marine Corps operate 150 data centers, but use on average only 10 percent of their server capacity, the Navy's top data consolidation official disclosed here at the annual Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association-West conference.

Rob Wolborsky, chief technology officer of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, said a recent survey of 30 data centers shows some use as little as 2 percent of their server capacity. Wolborsky also serves as director of the Navy data consolidation task force.

The White House kicked off a massive data center consolidation effort in 2011, and last April, Vikek Kundra, the federal chief information officer at the time, estimated that, on average, federal data center servers operated at 27 percent of their capacity.

The Navy plans to close 58 data centers, which will help it realize savings of $1.4 billion. Wolborsky predicted the service could exceed that target and achieve even greater savings.

The Defense Information Systems Agency has emerged as the first choice for data and application hosting for the Air Force, Army and the Defense Logistics Agency, the Pentagon reported last November, but the Navy does not plan to pursue "a DISA one" strategy, Wolborsky said.

DISA is part of the Navy data consolidation center mix, he said, but the service intends to use three existing SPAWAR data centers in San Diego, New Orleans and Charleston, S.C., as the core of its data center efforts. The Navy also would like to use space in the massive 74,000-square-foot Marine Corps Kansas City, Mo., data center, he said.

The Navy has little choice but to proceed with its data center plans, according to Wolborsky. The anticipated consolidation savings already have been reflected in future budgets and if the service does not meet its consolidation goals, then it will not have the funds to buy aircraft or operate ships, he warned.