Why shutting down 800 federal data centers won’t be easy

from GigaOM:

>>During a call last week, Equinix GM of the Global Enterprise Segment Greg Adgate told me that although it makes a lot of sense for certain agencies to deploy applications in cutting-edge data centers that can meet performance and scalability needs, getting funding to build such a facility won’t be easy. That means a ripe opportunity for companies like Equinix that can offer co-location space directly and/or that host service providers certified to meet federal compliance standards.

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However, it might be too early to make accurate predictions as to whether agencies will meet the OMB mandate, or what steps they’ll take to save money on operations if they can’t hit the consolidation mark. Equinix’s Adgate said the first pass will be relatively pain-free because the government operates many data centers that “aren’t data centers as we know them” — telco closets, retrofitted offices, and other infrastructure caches — that will be easy to lop off. It’s the infrastructure and applications running in actual data centers that will be more difficult to move.