Federal CIO begins selling huge IT consolidation plan

The federal government's top technology executive has developed a grand plan to centralize information technology services for all non-Defense Department agencies, as detailed deep in President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget and briefed to IT industry officials this week.

The consolidation plan, as outlined in the budget in a section titled "Special Topics," envisions the selection of central IT service providers in civilian agencies, strongly backs remote or cloud computing, calls for consolidation of the 1,100 data centers throughout government and pushes the use of so-called federal eMalls to purchase computer hardware. The plan, devised under the supervision of Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, is "brilliant" because it will relieve federal CIOs of the burden of being chief computer officers and allow them to focus on using IT to deliver services to citizens, said Jeff Koch, an associate partner in IBM's strategy and change practice who worked on electronic government initiatives in the Office of Management and Budget during the Bush administration.