The Current State of the Data Center Optimization Initiative: Lessons Learned & Opportunities for Improvement

Established by the U.S. Office of Management & Budget (OMB) in 2016, The Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) seeks to improve data center operations across 24 federal agencies and aid them in realizing significant energy and cost savings. As of March 2021, these federal agencies operated 2,596 data centers under the purview of DCOI. This report assesses the current state of DCOI implementation among federal agencies and makes recommendations for how the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) can help support agencies in their quest for not only DCOI compliance but also achieving energy and cost savings in one of the most resource intensive facility types in the federal building stock. We find that while significant progress (in terms of data center cost savings, closures, and optimization metrics) has been made, inconsistencies in reporting, data quality issues, and policy changes compromise the overall impact of DCOI. For example, the exclusion of non-tiered data centers in the 2019 DCOI policy update (M-19-19) leaves thousands of federal data centers unreported and unaddressed (many of which are sizable – over 1,000 square feet). Our review also finds that certain DCOI components have proven difficult to implement. In particular, agencies responsible for implementation or oversight of DCOI have had difficulty in  developing accurate data center counts (further complicated by shifts in policy), in continuing to close and consolidate data centers, in communicating and enforcing an agency-wide DCOI strategy and in meeting optimization metrics – particularly monitoring and virtualization. FEMP and other stakeholders could improve DCOI implementation and outcomes across agencies by developing tools, trainings and reporting templates, and bolster integration with other agency energy management efforts more broadly.