US Navy orders halt to procurement of computer centres

The US Navy has ordered its procurement officers to stop buying computer servers or adding new data centres, as the US government prepares to announce agency-specific targets for reducing its information technology infrastructure.

In a recent memo, the US Navy halted purchasing servers, making server upgrades or adding data centres without a waiver.

"I expect this type of action to be followed elsewhere," said Trey Hodgkins, vice president for national security and procurement policy at IT trade association TechAmerica.

"If you don't let anyone buy those kinds of things, you at least begin to get a handle on the propagation of the activity and you can begin to move in the other direction," Mr Hodgkins said. 

The Navy also said in the directive it expects designated commands to come up with plans to reduce their data centres by 25 per cent and increase server utilisation by at least 40 per cent.

Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, has said that reducing the number of data centres will result in savings on energy, real estate and operations. Additionally, the initiative is intended to push agencies into adopting cloud – or Web based – computing platforms.

The US federal government expects this move to improve efficiency and save money. 

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