The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to reevaluate a plan to build a data center in Downey.
The county’s information network is decentralized and redundant, with thousands of servers spread over about 20 locations, Supervisor Mark Ridley- Thomas said.
Ridley-Thomas recommended that the board stop and reassess a plan underway since 2004 to build a data center at the Rancho Los Amigos campus to consolidate up to 65 data centers into a single, high-density facility.
“This motion is intended to save energy, money and space,” Ridley-Thomas said. He pointed to similar upgrades undertaken by California’s state government and New York City’s government.
A planning committee will hire a consultant to help evaluate options, including leasing, building or buying a data center facility.
The latest budget for the Rancho Los Amigos project, which would house computers containing data on everything from employee payrolls to inmate transfers, was $209 million.
In order to meet the county’s growing need for computing power, the county began merging multiple computers onto fewer systems, “virtualizing” the technology. While that cut the demand for physical space, shared servers are more expensive to maintain, increasing project costs.
The board directed the chief executive officer and chief information officer to come up with a five-year plan for consolidation. A report is expected back within 90 days.
“With technology evolving so rapidly, the county needs to assess its long-term needs for the protection and security of its massive amounts of data,” Supervisor Don Knabe said.
The planned Rancho Los Amigos project is in the Fourth District, which Knabe represents.
— City News Service
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