
Posted By: Darren Bonawitz
I would like to comment on an article from InformationWeek.com, written by Elizabeth Montalbano, highlighting the many IT management challenges facing the Social Security Administration in the near future.
The article is in response to a report by the Social Security Administration’s Inspector General Patrick P. O’Carroll Jr., stating the IT concerns that the Social Security Administration has in the upcoming new year. Montalbano primarily focuses on the SSA’s transition to a new data center from the outdated National Computer Center (NCC). The article also reviews concerns with modernizing business applications and the transition from traditional customer service to web-based.
Click Here to read the full article:
I think it is a safe bet that we all knew that Social Security was in trouble. What I don’t think we realized is that when discussing its collapse, it actually pertained to the physical structure of their data center. Unfortunately, although very scary to consider, the issues and challenges they are facing with regard to their data center infrastructure are not unique. It is not even isolated to the government sector. Many companies are facing similar issues with their existing privately owned and operated data centers albeit at different levels of scale.
Companies need to step back and take a look at the big picture and carefully evaluate all of the options. Just because owning and operating a data center made sense in the past, it does not mean it is the best solution going forward. The requirements of the business itself may have changed and certainly the alternatives available have whether it is collocation, hosted environments, cloud services, or a hybrid solution.