Most Feds Confident About Data Center Consolidation

Nearly 60 percent of federal government respondents think it's at least "somewhat feasible" that the government will be able to trim 800 of its more than 2,100 data centers by 2015, according to a privately funded survey released Monday.

About half of federal respondents said they were optimistic about the future of cloud computing at their agencies, another component of Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra's 25-point plan to reform federal IT.

Nearly 50 percent of federal respondents, though, said their agency doesn't have a cloud "exit strategy." That's a key concern for federal IT managers, who worry that once they store information in one private cloud they won't be able to safely, securely and completely move it to another private cloud or back into agency-owned storage without creating a service interruption or jeopardizing some data.

About 63 percent of the respondents said security was the greatest barrier to their agency jumping headfirst into the cloud.

The survey was conducted by Norwich University's School of Graduate and Continuing Studies for Quest Software, a major information technology contractor.