The White House is thinking about choosing a new data center for its infrastructure

    The other day in the US House of Representatives it was announced its intention to hold a tender within one month for the provision of state. US apparatus of a single IT platform, where numerous government agencies and departments could safely post their data. The White House has announced a whole set of very interesting requirements. For example, the data center, in which most of the paperwork of metropolitan officials will be conducted, should be moved outside the city of Washington. Particularly stringent requirements were formulated for downtime of the future data center, which will ensure the functioning of a number of state. institutions, it should be as low as possible. A streamlined system for backing up lost data, an enhanced security system that ensures the confidentiality of government databases, as well as the possibility of placing third-party clients on a site leased by the state as part of its commercial use are important requirements for the Data Center. About these, as well as other criteria when choosing a data center Depom. will go further in this article.



    The contract for services is expected to be concluded for six years, starting from November 25 - this is the date by which the selection of the applicant should end. According to the announced technical specifications, the facility should be located at a distance of 480 to 560 km in a straight line from Capitol Hill, while the distance from risk factors such as the Atlantic coast and any military facility should be at least 160 km. Under such strict location requirements in the United States, territories can probably fall only in the states of North Carolina, Ohio, New York.



    Also, the technical specifications for the data center specify the requirements for the presence of "hot corridors" between server racks. The data center should provide protected racks from external interference by unauthorized employees; the building itself must have an equipped place for a satellite antenna with a diameter of at least 5 meters. Another condition is the mandatory provision on the territory of the infrastructure complex of a site with an area of ​​at least 70 sq. M, where representatives from each of the agencies could be accommodated, whose information would be posted in the data center.

    In the contract presented to the general public, the point of uptime is especially noted - it should be close to 100%. If this obviously hard-to-reach figure is not complied with, increasing penalties are provided if the time of failure to provide the service in full exceeds 5/9% (0.5555 (6)). Each of the server racks should be powered from 5 to 20 kW. One of the clauses of the contract requires monitoring the ecosystem at the location of the data center and studying the impact on it; this requirement does not bear any special technical burden on the state applicant. order, but rather will be a response to the environmental aspirations of American society that must be met.



    According to experts, the order for such services was a response to the initiative of the Senate on the consolidation of state assets. structures voiced back in 2010. Under the auspices of this initiative, entire units of state. apparatus take appropriate measures. The purpose of these actions is to increase the reliability of data storage with minimal financial costs.

    At the moment, the situation with the placement of information state. institutions is such that the databases of different subdivisions, even within the same service, can be scattered at different data centers in the country, because the site selection is based on the results of a competition at which state applicants. a contract for the provision of services from all over the vast homeland would have a chance to win it by providing the most favorable conditions. In this situation, IT specialists noted obvious difficulties in ensuring coherence and control of information safety, both as a result of technical failures, and because of deliberate malicious actions.

    Among the mentioned state. Agencies that plan to place their data in the data center selected by the results of the announced tender: Library of Congress, Capitol Police and Architecture Department, Congress Budget Office, State Audit Office, State Printing Agency and other related legislative services.


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