As agencies have continued to close data centers by participating in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), adapting to new technologies and cybersecurity must be front of mind for these closures, a Government Accountability Office expert said today. […]

The Government Accountability Office said in a new report that the 24 Federal agencies participating in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) were expected to achieve the 2019-2020 goal of closing 230 additional data centers and saving $1.1 billion as a result. According to the GAO report on DCOI […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report issued today that most of the largest Federal agencies made good progress in meeting goals to close data centers in Fiscal Year 2019, but also recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) take several steps to improve clarity of reporting on data center closures under OMB’s Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) issued in 2016 and modified last year. […]

For the first time in the history of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard, three agencies received “A” grades and set the bar higher for the 24 CFO Act agencies going forward into 2020. […]

The U.S. Air Force plans to release a solicitation to help the service branch optimize and modernize its Hill Enterprise Data Center (HEDC) in Utah while supporting a hybrid cloud environment and meeting requirements under the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI), as noted in a beta.SAM.gov post. […]

Members of the House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee expressed happiness with the  progress that Federal agencies have made on their FITARA scores, but remained critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) guidance on the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) due to the policy’s revised guidelines on what constitutes a data center. […]

Agencies are mostly making progress on the White House’s IT modernization goals – with many goals completed, most remaining goals on track, and a few challenge areas – according to a President’s Management Agenda (PMA) update released September 19. […]

The FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued twice per year by the House Oversight and Reform Committee is likely to see some changes in the near term due to the need for new data sources, new policies, and shifting congressional priorities, said Kevin Walsh, FITARA executive at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

While the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may be struggling with its outdated and constrained IT systems, the need for modernized technology is not a valid reason to merge OPM with the General Services Administration (GSA), said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in a June 30 interview with Government Matters. […]

The chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Reform delivered a clear to-do list on Thursday to Federal CIOs: pursue further data center consolidation, tighten the reporting lines between CIOs and agency heads, and craft better roadmaps for IT modernization. […]

Congressional concerns over the revision to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy were a main focal point during a hearing on the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard 8.0 today. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee’s latest report card on how the 24 largest Federal agencies are progressing on critical IT initiatives reveals a core of relatively stable agency scores, but with several big twists that significantly impact grades for most agencies. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) netted its highest grade on the FITARA (Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard yet, earning a C+ on the eighth version of the biannual scorecard released today by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finalized the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy on June 25, largely keeping the draft policy in place despite criticisms from Congress and industry. […]

The Office of Management and Budget finalized its Cloud Smart policy today, making no major changes from the draft policy released in September 2018. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) cited IT problems as an “ongoing obstacle” to the VA serving its mission in its semiannual report to Congress, publicly released May 30. […]

Out of the 24 CFO Act agencies, 13 agencies reported that they had met data center closure goals set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a majority met cost savings targets, but no agency with a data center met optimization targets, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

For agencies looking at a multi-cloud strategy, managing different vendors and gaining expertise in different clouds is key to take advantage of the nuanced differences and prevent cloud sprawl, said Sanjay Gupta, chief technology officer for the Small Business Administration (SBA). […]

With the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) executive order and Federal data strategy on the horizon, MeriTalk connected with Rob Davies, Executive Vice President of Operations, ViON, to discuss how agencies can prepare their infrastructure to handle demands from AI, IoT, advanced analytics, blockchain, and more. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to share Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) guidance across the department, leading to an estimated 860 unreported data centers and inadequate DCOI goals, according to a report released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general. […]

Public comments on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) draft Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy show a desire for OMB to continue the push for modernization amid new metrics and a shift towards optimization over data center closures. […]

2018 brought a lot of progress on IT modernization and Federal policies, providing a platform for future IT modernization efforts, said Federal CIO Suzette Kent on Thursday. […]

A draft of the new Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy released Monday reorients the focus of DCOI toward optimization–rather than data center consolidations and closures–and revises metrics for the program. […]

New guidance for the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) will likely include revised performance goals for agencies, revised metrics for energy metering and virtualization, and new metrics for under-utilized servers, availability, and old hardware, said Jake Wooley, IT sustainability program manager at the Department of Energy (DoE), during MeriTalk’s 2018 Data Center Brainstorm. […]

Data from the Federal government’s IT Dashboard website appear to indicate that Federal CFO Act agencies have made some progress but are still more than 1,000 data centers short of their intended closure goals for 2020 under the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI). […]

MeriTalk today announced the winners of its inaugural FITARA Awards program, recognizing six Federal agencies who have made tremendous strides in modernizing their IT environments and one congressional leader who has worked tirelessly to promote the reform of IT acquisitions and adoption of cyber best practices. […]

Government agencies may finally be getting a handle on cloud, according to a major cloud service provider, as the breadth of Federal use cases in the cloud expands rapidly. […]

Can software-defined storage help support the data center modernization efforts of Federal agencies and help them meet ambitious Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) milestones? […]

DHS Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) is pivotal to improving government cybersecurity. While it’s critical, it has a lot of moving parts–and that can make it difficult to follow. MeriTalk sat down with Kevin Cox to get a handle on the state of CDM, as well as an understanding of where the program goes from here. And, it’s quite a story–so I hope you’re sitting comfortably, feel free to grab a cup of coffee. […]

We sat down with Jeff Henry, president of ViON, in his office in Herndon, Va. The typical tech provider surroundings belied the epic changes at ViON, as it morphs from leading data center reseller to delivering government IT modernization as a service. […]