A tale of two U.S. government data center projects

19.09.2011
This is a story of two federal government data center projects: One, undertaken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), met its schedule and budget. The other, a U.S. Air Force initiative, went over budget and was late.

How did this happen? What was different about the projects and the approaches that led to different outcomes?

The NOAA project was a $27.6 million renovation of an approximately five-year-old office and laboratory building in an office park in Fairmount, W.Va. The building was newly leased by the government. The goal of the renovation was to upgrade the capabilities of the computer systems that support and to consolidate several research data centers. The agency picked West Virginia because it was looking for locations in a from an existing .

The entire facility is 54,000 square feet, with 16,000 square feet of raised floor space.