CIOs get to work on closing data centers

The Federal CIO Council has launched a governmentwide data center consolidation task force as part of the Obama administration’s IT reform program.

The task force, which began its work in February, seeks to close a minimum of 800 data centers by 2015 and is composed of data center program managers, facilities managers and sustainability officers from 24 agencies, according to information posted April 7 on the official CIO.gov website.

Members of the task force participate in monthly meetings to review progress of each consolidation project. Homeland Security CIO Richard Spires and Interior Department CIO Bernard Mazer lead the task force as co-chairmen.

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New designation for federal IT managers

Off-track IT investments face do-or-die reviews

The administration has been making progress on implementing its 25-point IT management reform plan. In recent weeks, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has released a draft proposal for a new IT program manager title and agencies have begun holding their own TechStat sessions to review IT spending.

Kundra also suggested at a conference in March that some agencies might elevate the role of their CIOs – following in the footsteps of Interior’s new policies from last December – and that he is in the process of “reconstituting” the Federal CIO Council.

A status update on the IT reform plan is expected sometime this month.

Kundra, along with officials from the General Services Administration and the Government Accountability Office, is scheduled to testify April 12 at a Senate subcommittee hearing about the IT plan.