State of Oregon's Green IT Project Improves Performance, Saves on Cost

• 

  Your Email: *

  Your Name: *

  Send To: *

  Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.

  You are going to email the following: State of Oregon's Green IT Project Improves Performance, Saves on Cost

  Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from GreenBiz.com®

  Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from GreenBiz.com®.

  Your Personal Message: *

  CAPTCHA

  Are you human? Thanks for helping us block auto-spammers.

  

  What code is in the image?: *

  Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.
  
• 
• 
• 

SALEM, Ore. -- The state of Oregon has just one data center.

A simple as that statement is, it belies both the complexity of the three-year, $43 million process to reach that result, as well as the benefits it is earning from that process and the starting point.

An article published in InformationWeek magazine by Mark Reyer, the adminstrator of the Oregon Data Center, offers a thorough look at how his team took the state from 11 separate data centers to one consolidated, Tier 3 data center. As a result, Reyer says the state is saving $10-12 million a year in procurement and maintenance costs, and in addition to already dropping its power usage will be better able to monitor and reduce energy consumption overall in coming years.

Reyer's article, while discussing the challenges and opportunities faced by a substantial government operation, is useful to an organization of any size that is facing the potentially daunting challenge of bringing its IT operations up to speed, whether for efficiency, security or environmental reasons.

Reyer outlines the basic steps that his team took to achieve its goals:

• Analyze overall IT use and plan for future needs
• Standardize IT architecture across all operations
• Streamline the IT environment from hardware and software to number of vendors
• After competitive bids, purchase and begin installing new hardware
• Implement the new system in parallel with existing system, to train and modify platform for new users
• Look ahead for new features that were unavailable in the old system, like end-to-end encryption and more efficient communications and collaboration tools

The project wasn't without its obstacles, logistically and culturally, but Reyer explains three big benefits from the process:

First, [individual agency IT departments] were no longer just a back-room operation for one agency, but a major part of support for a large organization, which put them in the limelight. In a sense, they're keeping the whole government going. Second, they found a new sense of technical vitality in collaborating with people who had similar skills. Two network people with 20 years experience who worked alone at two different agencies now found themselves in the same department exchanging ideas and experiences.

The third human benefit made the greatest impact: Bringing everyone together made them realize that it makes no difference where they come from; what matters is whether their customers are satisfied. The good impression a customer gets of one person tends to spread over the entire organization. We developed a close-knit group that works extraordinarily well together, with good morale. People enjoy coming to work here.

The full article is published on InformationWeek.com.