Consolidation Ain’t Just for Data Centers

By Mark Wisinger, Analyst

The Department of Defense has a multitude of agencies with missions varying from missile defense to audit compliance. The challenge is noticing the subtle overall trends that permeate their IT priorities.

One word describes what the agencies are up to: Consolidation. It’s happening on several fronts, including procurement, the data center, and the application portfolio.

Agencies have historically bought IT products ad-hoc. Costs have ballooned over the years as agencies have not been able to take advantage of bulk pricing. In an effort to shave costs as well as simplify the procurement process, various organizations are shifting towards buying enterprise-wide. There are some initial enterprise licensing agreements; expect that trend to continue. This goes hand-in-hand with efforts to shrink bloated application portfolios that often contain redundant products.

Data center consolidation is hardly a novel idea in DOD at this point, but agencies are continuing to make progress on this front. They’re shifting systems and applications to the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Defense Enterprise Computing Centers, continuously shutting down data centers, and investigating cloud.

Want to hear more on the IT trends within DOD? Join my Webinar, Tapping into IT Sales Opportunities across Office of the Secretary of Defense Agencies, next Thursday at 11 am. Sign up today!