Turning off the mainframe is a big step in reducing the House's server footprint. Already, the House consolidated about 150 test servers down to 20 through virtualization, and consolidated about 120 production servers onto 15 or 20.

"Those are dramatic savings for us in the way of power and cooling," Zanatta says.

The mainframe was consuming 10,000 to 15,000 watts an hour, and maintenance and support costs were increasing because it was so out-of-date.

"As it increases in age, so does the maintenance cost," Zanatta says. "We were starting to hit that threshold of pain."