Enclosure 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

Version 2.0 

September 30, 2011 
Enclosure 

Contents 

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2 

2 Agency Goals for Data Center Consolidation ............................................................ 2 

3 Implementing Shared Services/Multitenancy ............................................................ 3 

4 Agency Approach, Rationale, and Timeline .............................................................. 4 

5 Agency Governance Framework for Data Center Consolidation ............................... 5 

5.1 Cost-Benefit Analysis ........................................................................................ 6 

5.2 Risk Management and Mitigation ...................................................................... 6 

5.3 Acquisition Management ................................................................................... 8 

5.4 Communications Strategy ................................................................................. 8 

6 Progress .................................................................................................................... 9 

6.1 FDCCI Consolidation Progress ......................................................................... 9 

6.2 Cost Savings ..................................................................................................... 9 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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1 Introduction 

Congress created the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as an independent agency 

in 1974 to enable the safe use of radioactive materials for beneficial civilian purposes while 

ensuring the protection of people and the environment. The NRC regulates commercial nuclear 

power plants and other uses of nuclear materials, such as in nuclear medicine, through 

licensing, inspection, and enforcement of its requirements. 

The NRC strives to strategically apply information technology (IT) to support its mission of 

protecting people and the environment. Additionally, the agency seeks to modernize technology 

in cost-effective and efficient ways that meet its business requirements. 

 

At the core of the NRC’s IT infrastructure are production data centers that house the agency’s 

enterprise servers (e.g., file, print, e-mail), applications, local area network/wide area network 

components, and other critical IT assets. The agency’s Data Center Consolidation Project is 

critical to ensuring that the IT resources required by the staff are readily available to meet the 

NRC’s mission and goals. 

The NRC’s Data Center Consolidation Project is part of an overall IT modernization initiative 

undertaken in response to a constrained IT budget, aging IT hardware, and outdated legacy 

application systems. In order to respond to these factors, the agency is currently planning to 

leverage a combination of strategies to reduce its data center footprint, including energy 

consumption and operation costs, through the increased use of cloud computing alternatives 

(both Government and commercial); application system modernization; increased server and 

desktop virtualization; a planned energy-efficient, consolidated data center; and the application 

of other green technologies across the enterprise. 

This final Data Center Consolidation Plan, developed in response to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) memorandum on the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), 

dated February 26, 2010, provides a high-level roadmap for transitioning the agency’s data 

centers to consolidated end-state architecture. While the NRC also houses IT equipment in 

facilities such as local area network rooms, test facilities, training centers, and disaster recovery 

sites; the plan does not include these sites but specifically addresses the NRC’s production data 

centers. 

In completing this plan, NRC personnel performed a physical inventory of servers and 

equipment to verify that inventory data and the consolidation plan were complete, accurate, and 

consistent. 

2 Agency Goals for Data Center Consolidation 

As outlined in the OMB memorandum, the NRC’s Data Center Consolidation Plan focuses on 

the following core aspects related to data center consolidation: 

• reducing the number of data centers 

• targeting reductions in costs associated with data center hardware, software, and 

operations 

• increasing the overall security posture of agency IT assets 
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• shifting agency IT investments to standardize computing platforms for enterprise-wide 

applications 

• exploring technologies such as server and desktop virtualization 

• fostering the adoption of common enterprise solutions to maximize the use of available 

resources 

• promoting green IT technologies to reduce the overall energy and real estate footprint of 

agency data centers 

• leveraging cloud computing to the maximum extent possible for workforce productivity 

and administrative support applications such as financial management, human 

resources, procurement, messaging, Web conferencing, notification systems, and 

commodity services 

The NRC is identifying areas where it may realize cost savings and energy reduction through a 

variety of approaches. These approaches include the recent implementation of a commercial 

off-the-shelf (COTS) data center management solution that provides the ability to monitor and 

track key data center characteristics, including energy usage, temperature, and humidity. 

One of the main goals of consolidation is a significant reduction in energy consumption. During 

fiscal years (FYs) 2012 through 2015, the NRC will take action to achieve an overall target of 

10-percent reduction in energy consumption in its data centers. To achieve this target, the 

agency is planning for physical data center consolidation and modernization. This effort will 

include an assessment of current hardware and software assets in the agency’s production data 

centers to identify opportunities for consolidating systems, modernizing application systems, 

using virtualization, and the installation of a COTS solution to monitor power and environmental 

conditions. As data center consolidation progresses, the NRC will analyze the potential to 

achieve additional reductions in energy consumption through the use of modern, energy 

efficient technologies for data center cooling and through the exploration of IT hardware 

upgrades that significantly reduce energy consumption and heat output. 

3 Implementing Shared Services/Multitenancy 

In conjunction with the data center consolidation effort, the NRC recently awarded a 

performance-based IT Infrastructure Services and Support (ITISS) contract to provide the full 

scope of infrastructure services and support. 

The NRC currently manages its infrastructure through a series of contracts. The largest of 

these, the Integrated Services and Support contract, is primarily used for seat management; 

server support for standard, enterprise applications; and IT infrastructure research, 

development, and testing. Other contracts currently providing infrastructure services include 

Data Center Facilities Operations, Data Center System Administration, Wireless Telephone 

Services Management, Nuclear Security and Incident Response Operations Center Network 

Management, Safeguards for Wireless Local Area Network, and Emergency Response Data 

System. The NRC intends to consolidate these contract services into the ITISS contract as 

appropriate. This will effectively provide a method of offering shared services for the enterprise 

in a consistent and efficient manner. 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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This acquisition includes the following programmatic objectives: 

• consistently providing IT infrastructure support at the required levels of service for the 

most reasonable cost 

• maintaining a robust, secure computing environment that protects the information and 

users that the IT infrastructure supports 

• innovation in the use of IT to increase the productivity of agency users, improve the 

agency’s security posture, and reduce the cost of services provided while maintaining 

customer service expectations 

• establishing an IT infrastructure that can adapt to changes in requirements and priorities 

• evaluating the NRC IT infrastructure environment and making specific recommendations 

for how the agency can better use existing services in different ways that better serve 

the needs of its users 

• managing an accurate, reliable, and complete inventory of IT assets 

The statement of work for the ITISS contract includes tasks under which the contractor will 

propose innovative technologies and solutions that would provide greater efficiencies (including 

“green improvements” that would decrease the environmental impact of NRC work practices). 

The NRC is also taking advantage of other Federal contracts and mandates to provide services 

consistent with other Federal agencies. In FY 2011, the NRC transitioned services to the WITS3 

and Networx contracts and implemented Trusted Internet Connection services. Additionally, the 

NRC is considering Government provided and commercial cloud based services where 

appropriate. 

4 Agency Approach, Rationale, and Timeline 

The increase in new reactors has required the Agency to expand its staffing level and 

strengthen the need for a more robust IT infrastructure to ensure the Agency can meet its 

mission. The Agency is consolidating staff from several interim buildings to allow staff to work 

better together and save on lease and related other costs, such as Telecommunication circuits, 

shuttle bus service, etc. The activity which has provided a need to move and consolidate Data 

Centers. 

The NRC currently has three production data centers in use in the Rockville, MD, area, These 

data centers range significantly in size and age. Agency business requirements call for a robust 

IT infrastructure to ensure that the agency can meet its mission. A key requirement in the 

consolidation of data centers is a modern, upgraded physical plant that will support the current 

and future demands of agency IT systems. 

In order to simplify data center consolidation, the NRC has been assertive in consolidating 

applications since issuance of the 2010 report. As of June 2011, the NRC had virtualized 

21 percent of the Microsoft Windows servers. In addition to saving power, this measure has 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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resulted, in some cases, in the virtualization of applications running on older server hardware 

and the subsequent retirement of the legacy hardware. This has resulted in a reduction in 

demand on the data center cooling units, which allowed the NRC to operate during the record 

high temperatures of summer 2011 without any outages. The staff anticipates that further server 

virtualization will facilitate the retirement of additional older, power inefficient servers, yielding 

additional energy savings. 

Finally, in order to gather additional quantitative data on the success of consolidation and 

modernization efforts, the NRC has implemented a COTS hardware and software solution in the 

data centers to provide visibility into power use and data about environmental conditions. The 

staff will establish additional metrics specific to activities supporting this data center 

consolidation initiative to measure progress towards meeting the goals and objectives outlined 

in the plan. 

The NRC expects to realize the following benefits from data center consolidation, virtualization, 

and other improvements: 

• a common, uniform architecture for providing shared services to the enterprise 

• a 10-percent reduction in energy costs 

• reduced facilities and server maintenance and operations costs 

• improved, consistent facility and IT security 

• additional quantitative data related to energy usage and environmental factors 

• consolidated contract services 

• improved automation for server management and provisioning 

• higher capability and robusted 

• ability to be more agile 

• ability to better support remote users 

5 Agency Governance Framework for Data Center Consolidation 

 

The governance framework for the NRC data center consolidation largely takes advantage of 

existing, established investment and IT governance bodies and processes. 

The NRC ensures that IT investments are managed to maximize value, assess potential risks, 

and manage performance in accordance with Federal statutes and regulations. The NRC IT 

governance structure uses a hierarchy of IT governance boards to promote the appropriate 

transparency, accountability, and oversight of agency capital IT investments. The NRC 

governance framework includes the Executive Steering Committee, the IT Senior Advisory 

Council, the IT Business Council, and established working groups that support and inform the 

governance processes. 

The NRC’s IT governance boards were established to provide executive management review 

and oversight of all IT investments. As such, the IT governance process is an integral part of the 

Data Center Consolidation Project, providing management oversight, direction, and financial 

monitoring of all activities associated with the planning and implementation of consolidation 

solutions. The process will ensure the following: 

• selection and approval of IT investments based on their alignment to the NRC’s strategic 

goals, business needs, and the agency enterprise architecture to control risks and costs 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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• establishment of priorities for IT investments that support optimal use of agency 

resources 

• adherence to established controls and checkpoints to monitor IT investment 

performance to ensure that the investments are managed effectively and are achieving 

the expected results of consolidation 

The Computer Operations and Telecommunication Branch (COTB) within the NRC’s Office of 

Information Services will serve as the lead branch for data center consolidation initiatives, 

coordination of consolidation related activities, and measurement of data center consolidation 

progress. Funding decisions for the consolidation effort will be reviewed and approved by an 

executive steering committee and go through the Agency’s budget process. 

As part of the planned contract services consolidation, the NRC will have clear service level 

requirements related to data center monitoring, management, and performance. Additionally, 

the NRC is establishing clear service level agreements (SLAs) with application owners 

throughout the agency. COTB has established a set of milestones to track and manage 

activities directly related to data center consolidation. In addition, COTB will develop key 

performance indicators with corresponding targets to measure progress towards goals specified 

in this plan. These baseline milestones and performance indicators will be tracked and 

monitored through the agency’s data center schedule. 

5.1 Cost-Benefit Analysis 

Beginning in 2006, the NRC workload began to expand significantly to support new reactors, 

necessitating a large increase in the number of headquarters staff and contractors. The NRC 

began to work with GSA on a long-term housing plan to obtain sufficient permanent office space 

near the White Flint Complex to re-consolidate the headquarters staff and decompress the work 

environments. This strategy not only satisfied savings with real estate leases, it also provided a 

mechanism to improve our operational infrastructure to support the Agency’s 24x7 Emergency 

Operations Center and building a new Green IT Data Center. 

Several options were submitted to the NRC Chairman using cost-benefit estimates for the 

project requesting a decision on which housing strategy should be implemented and whether or 

not to move the Data Centers. 

Option 2, which included moving the Data Centers, was selected because it was the most cost 

effective and operationally beneficial solution in cost sharing of facility cooling, power, network 

connectivity, etc., reducing overhead cost, centralizations and reducing cost of 

telecommunication circuits, and reduction in campus size. 

This analysis was based on the following principles and guidelines: 

• Provision of a Nuclear Emergency Operations Infrastructure that support backup 

heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical, and fire suppression capabilities to 

sustain 24-hour operations in the event of loss of power, water, or both 

• Consolidation of staff located in NRC interim buildings to an expanded White Flint 

Complex. 

• Compliance with Executive Order (E.O.) 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, 

Energy, and Economic Performance to reduce energy consumption and water use, 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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increased renewable energy, and use building materials that contribute to reducing 

greenhouse gases. 

• Provision of security measures that comply with Interagency Security Committee (ISC) 

Level IV criteria for Federally occupied buildings 

The construction and build-out of the new Data Center requires a significant investment, 

approximately 12.5M plus 4.5M for occupancy and transition. The ROI related to this cost will 

be realized over many years, well beyond FY2015. The NRC does not have a baseline for 

power and cooling since these items were not previously monitored. There will be initial costs 

savings to offset a percentage of this investment as the three current data centers are 

consolidated in the new data center and as other cost savings technologies (e.g. virtualization) 

are introduced. Additionally, in all years, applicable technologies like Cloud Computing will be 

considered in development and consolidation activities and implemented when appropriate. 

5.2 Risk Management and Mitigation 

The NRC uses a risk-averse project management approach. Risk identification takes place 

throughout the project life cycle, starting at the project initiation and planning stages, during 

which initial risks are identified and mitigation measures are developed and documented. As the 

project matures and external and internal situations change, the agency will identify, classify, 

and track additional risks and implement mitigation strategies as needed. We also use lessons 

learned, best practices from the States and other Federal Agencies and Private Industry. 

The staff manages risks by identifying, assessing, and tracking potential threats to project 

success. When the staff identifies a risk, it categorizes and tracks the risk based on criteria that 

include the likelihood of occurrence and the impact on the project, component or system, or 

data center. Mitigation plans are developed to address threats judged as high risk based on 

these criteria. This helps ensure that proper and timely mitigation efforts are planned and 

carried out so that the resulting project is delivered within the given timeframe and meets the 

required standards. 

As part of the NRC’s risk management process, the staff has put in place a risk management 

plan that defines the processes for identifying risks, assessing their impact, and assigning 

responsibility to those who will monitor individual risks for possible occurrence and to those who 

will activate mitigation or contingency plans should the risks occur. The relative ranking of risks 

is reassessed periodically, and mitigation plans are updated accordingly. To achieve this 

objective, the risk management plan identifies and outlines project stakeholder roles and 

responsibilities for each risk management task. In accordance with the NRC’s standard process 

for risk management, any critical component or system level risks will be reported to IT 

management. 

Key risks identified for the Data Center Consolidation Project include the following: 

• lack of funding and resources to support initial consolidation efforts and proper build out 

of the new data center 

• possible delays in construction schedule 

• timing issues related to contract consolidation and transition 
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Risk management is an ongoing process and is deemed essential to ensure the success of the 

overall project. The early identification of project risks is paramount to the success of any project 

in that it provides sufficient time to analyze, plan, monitor, and control risks. 

5.3 Acquisition Management 

The multiyear ITISS contract discussed in Sections 3 and 5.1 will enable the NRC to consolidate 

a number of support services into a single contract vehicle. A multiyear effort is now underway 

to fold all operational support services into this new contract. The staff anticipates that the 

agency will gain cost efficiencies by leveraging across applications and driving towards a 

commonly architected solutions environment (e.g., consolidation of storage and server 

platforms, backup, archiving and recovery services). 

Separately, the agency is considering an expansion of its reliance on cloud applications through 

the use of Line-of-Business and Centers of Excellence from other Government agencies, as 

well as commercial hosting facilities. For example, the NRC already uses other Government 

agencies to provide mainframe computing services (e.g., the U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services’ National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National 

Business Center for payroll and financial management systems). 

5.4 Communications Strategy 

The NRC has a well defined communications program. We are using a multitier approach to 

ensure that effective communication strategies are implemented throughout the consolidation 

project and that senior management and agency leadership remain well informed. 

The formal communication plan will include the following elements; goals, key messages, 

background, audience, communication tools and timeline. 

Currently, key members of the FDCCI Consolidation Project Management Team meet twice 

monthly to provide project status updates and discuss project related issues and challenges. 

Additional informal meetings and teleconferences take place as needed to facilitate the 

necessary coordination to manage the magnitude and complexities of the project’s scope. 

In addition to the FDCCI Consolidation Project Management Team, the NRC has established 

other key internal and external project stakeholder groups. These groups have appointed 

project management or project representation teams to ensure that their respective needs and 

requirements are properly addressed. Each of these project stakeholder groups has established 

similar communication strategies, and the FDCCI Consolidation Project Management Team and 

these various project stakeholder groups meet weekly. Additional ad hoc meetings and 

teleconferences take place as needed to facilitate the necessary coordination. 

Key members of the FDCCI Consolidation Project Management Team meet weekly to brief 

senior management. Topics covered include project status, project risks and proposed 

mitigation strategies, and budget issues and constraints. 

As previously stated in Section 5, the NRC IT governance structure has implemented a 

hierarchy of IT governance boards to promote appropriate transparency, accountability, and 

oversight of the agency’s capital IT investments. This governance framework includes the 

Executive Steering Committee, comprising senior agency leadership. This committee meets 
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every month and more frequently if needed. Each week, senior management and key members 

of the FDCCI Consolidation Project Management Team brief members of the Executive 

Steering Committee on the overall health of the project and address any issues or concerns. 

This multitier, hierarchical communication strategy including the established meetings above will 

ensure that necessary project information is effectively communicated throughout all levels of 

management and to all project stakeholders. 

6 Progress 

6.1 FDCCI Consolidation Progress 

Since the NRC does not plan to close the first data center until FY 2013, the NRC’s FY 2011 

consolidation targets focused on goals achieved through server virtualization. To that end, the 

agency has far exceeded the initially proposed goals for server reduction. For example, at the 

beginning of the fourth quarter of FY 2010, the NRC had set a goal for the quarter to reduce 

servers by 10 percent. By employing a very aggressive virtualization schedule, the NRC 

achieved a reduction of more than 11 percent (33 physical servers). 

The NRC is currently on track to meet the planned consolidation targets for FYs 2012–2015. 

The main item on the critical path to data center consolidation is the timely completion and 

population of the new HQ campus building. To date, the main challenges relate to budget, 

resources, and managing the level of coordination required given the number of internal and 

external entities involved in facilities, data center, and IT planning and the related activities that 

need to happen simultaneously. 

6.2 Cost Savings 

As noted in Section 6.1, the NRC’s consolidation targets for 2011 focus on goals achieved 

through server virtualization, since closure of the first data center closure will not occur until 

FY 2013. To that end, the agency has exceeded the initially proposed 2011 goals of server 

reduction, resulting in a cost savings of $64,506, as shown in Table 2. 

Table 2 FY 2011 Savings 

Quantity

Avg. Amp 

Draw 

Cost per

kWh

Total Power Cost 

Saved per Year

Avg. Maint. Support 

Cost per Server

Total Maint. Cost 

Saved per Year

Total Cost 

Savings

Old servers removed 

from Prod, Test, & CTF 

environments through 

virtualization

53 2.75 $ 0.13 $ 19,917.61 $ 495.00 $ 26,235.00 

New servers avoided in 

Prod, Test, & CTF 

environments through 

virtualization

25 1.75 $ 0.13 $ 5,978.70 $ 495.00 $ 12,375.00 

Subtotals 78 $ 25,896.31 $ 38,610.00 $ 64,506.31 
2011 Data Center Consolidation Plan and Progress Report 

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Moving forward, the agency will continue to pursue cost savings by promoting green IT design 

solutions in the consolidated data center. This should reduce the total cost of ownership through 

more efficient power management and the use of more energy efficient IT hardware and data 

center cooling solutions. The NRC also continues to aggressively pursue further sever reduction 

through virtualization.