EDS to run data center for DHS

EDS of Plano, Texas, will run the second of two major data centers for the Homeland Security Department under an $800 million, eight-year contract the department awarded the company, according to EDS and industry sources.“It’s a very important contract to us,” EDS spokesman Brad Bass said, adding that neither the company nor the department had yet announced the award.“We would like to talk about it, but we are restricted in what we can say,” Bass said. “There are national security considerations here.”“We are going to march to what [DHS officials] say [regarding the data center], he added. “We are looking at a total of eight years.”DHS already activated its first major data center at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The second center will act as a mirrored backup to the first.In framing the request for proposals for the second data center, DHS emphasized that it wanted to ensure an extremely high level of physical security for the facility. Officials also said they wanted to ensure the center’s continued operations in the event of an electrical failure due to a malfunction or a natural or man-made disaster.