Fla. Stat. § 1004.649 — Florida Code / Title XLVIII / Chapter 1004 / Part II / Section 1004.649
1004.649 Northwest Regional Data Center.
Status: in_force

(1) For the purpose of providing data center services to its state agency customers, the Northwest Regional Data Center is designated as a state data center for all state agencies and shall: (a) Operate under a governance structure that represents its customers proportionally. (b) Maintain an appropriate cost-allocation methodology that accurately bills state agency customers based solely on the actual direct and indirect costs of the services provided to state agency customers and ensures that, for any fiscal year, state agency customers are not subsidizing other customers of the data center. Such cost-allocation methodology must comply with applicable state and federal regulations concerning the distribution and use of state and federal funds. (c) Enter into a service-level agreement with each state agency customer to provide services as defined and approved by the governing board of the center. At a minimum, such service-level agreements must: 1. Identify the parties and their roles, duties, and responsibilities under the agreement; 2. State the duration of the agreement term, which may not exceed 3 years, and specify the conditions for up to two optional 1-year renewals of the agreement before execution of a new agreement; 3. Identify the scope of work; 4. Establish the services to be provided, the business standards that must be met for each service, the cost of each service, and the process by which the business standards for each service are to be objectively measured and reported; 5. Provide a timely billing methodology for recovering the cost of services provided pursuant to s. 215.422; 6. Provide a procedure for modifying the service-level agreement to address any changes in projected costs of service; 7. Include a right-to-audit clause to ensure that the parties to the agreement have access to records for audit purposes during the term of the service-level agreement; 8. Identify the products or services to be delivered with sufficient specificity to permit an external financial or performance audit; 9. Provide that the service-level agreement may be terminated by either party for cause only after giving the other party notice in writing of the cause for termination and an opportunity for the other party to resolve the identified cause within a reasonable period; and 10. Provide state agency customer entities with access to applications, servers, network components, and other devices necessary for entities to perform business activities and functions and as defined and documented in a service-level agreement. (d) In its procurement process, show preference for cloud-computing solutions that minimize or do not require the purchasing or financing of state data center infrastructure, that meet the needs of state agency customer entities, that reduce costs, and that meet or exceed the applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and standards for cybersecurity. (e) Assist state agency customer entities in transitioning from state data center services to other third-party cloud-computing services procured by a customer entity or by the Northwest Regional Data Center on behalf of the customer entity. (f) Provide to the Board of Governors the total annual budget by major expenditure category, including, but not limited to, salaries, expenses, operating capital outlay, contracted services, or other personnel services by July 30 each fiscal year. (g) Provide to each state agency customer its projected annual cost for providing the agreed-upon data center services by September 1 each fiscal year. (h) Provide a plan for consideration by the Legislative Budget Commission if the governing body of the center approves the use of a billing rate schedule after the start of the fiscal year that increases any state agency customer’s costs for that fiscal year. (i) Provide data center services that comply with applicable state and federal laws, regulations, and policies, including all applicable security, privacy, and auditing requirements. (j) Maintain performance of the data center facilities by ensuring proper data backup; data backup recovery; disaster recovery; and appropriate security, power, cooling, fire suppression, and capacity. (k) Prepare and submit state agency customer invoices to the Department of Management Services for approval. Upon approval or by default pursuant to s. 282.201(5), submit invoices to state agency customers. (l) As funded in the General Appropriations Act, provide data center services to state agencies from multiple facilities.

(2) Unless exempt from the requirement to use the state data center pursuant to s. 282.201(2) or as authorized by the Legislature, a state agency may not do any of the following: (a) Terminate services with the Northwest Regional Data Center without giving written notice of intent to terminate services 180 days before such termination. (b) Procure third-party cloud-computing services without evaluating the cloud-computing services provided by the Northwest Regional Data Center. (c) Exceed 30 days from receipt of approved invoices to remit payment for state data center services provided by the Northwest Regional Data Center.

(3) The Northwest Regional Data Center’s authority to provide data center services to its state agency customers may be terminated if: (a) The center requests such termination to the Board of Governors, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives; or (b) The center fails to comply with the provisions of this section.

(4) The Northwest Regional Data Center is the lead entity responsible for creating, operating, and managing, including the research conducted by, the Florida Behavioral Health Care Data Repository as established by this subsection. (a) The purpose of the data repository is to create a centralized system for: 1. Collecting and analyzing existing statewide behavioral health care data to: a. Better understand the scope of and trends in behavioral health services, spending, and outcomes to improve patient care and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of behavioral health services; b. Better understand the scope of, trends in, and relationship between behavioral health, criminal justice, incarceration, and the use of behavioral health services as a diversion from incarceration for individuals with mental illness; and c. Enhance the collection and coordination of treatment and outcome information as an ongoing evidence base for research and education related to behavioral health. 2. Developing useful data analytics, economic metrics, and visual representations of such analytics and metrics to inform relevant state agencies and the Legislature of data and trends in behavioral health. (b) The Northwest Regional Data Center shall develop, in collaboration with the Data Analysis Committee of the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder created under s. 394.9086 and with relevant stakeholders, a plan that includes all of the following: 1. A project plan that describes the technology, methodology, timeline, cost, and resources necessary to create a centralized, integrated, and coordinated data system. 2. A proposed governance structure to oversee the implementation and operations of the repository. 3. An integration strategy to incorporate existing data from relevant state agencies, including, but not limited to, the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Office of the State Courts Administrator, and the Department of Corrections. 4. Identification of relevant data and metrics to support actionable information and ensure the efficient and responsible use of taxpayer dollars within behavioral health systems of care. 5. Data security requirements for the repository. 6. The structure and process that will be used to create an annual analysis and report that gives state agencies and the Legislature a better general understanding of trends and issues in the state’s behavioral health systems of care and the trends and issues in behavioral health systems related to criminal justice treatment, diversion, and incarceration. (c) By December 1, 2025, the Northwest Regional Data Center, in collaboration with the Data Analysis Committee of the Commission on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder, shall submit the developed plan for implementation and ongoing operation with a proposed budget to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives for review. (d) Beginning December 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, the Northwest Regional Data Center shall submit the developed trends and issues report under subparagraph (b)6. to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

(5) If such authority is terminated, the center has 1 year to provide for the transition of its state agency customers to a qualified alternative cloud-based data center that meets the enterprise architecture standards established by the Florida Digital Service.

History: s. 6, ch. 2011-63; s. 3, ch. 2012-142; s. 21, ch. 2014-221; s. 5, ch. 2022-153; s. 9, ch. 2025-180.