Data center consolidation was one of three major drivers for the overall fiscal-year-2013 IT budget request by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to immixGroup, which helps tech companies do business with the federal government.

The other two major drivers were commodity IT and mobility.

IT part of the department’s overall $40bn budget request is $5.75bn – down from $5.79bn the department has for the ongoing fiscal 2012, immixGroup said. Stephanie Sullivan, consultant with the company, said this was the second-largest IT budget among civilian federal agencies, trailing slightly behind Health and Human Services.

“IT products are, and will continue to be, necessary to DHS's overall priorities of guarding against terror, securing borders, enforcing immigration laws, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters and unifying and maturing DHS,” Sullivan said.

All federal agencies are under pressure by the White House to consolidate data centers. DHS has slated 43 of its data centers for closure, consolidating its infrastructure into two large enterprise-grade facilities.

The agency’s strategy also emphasizes cloud computing. It has plans to create nine private-cloud services for sensitive data and three public-cloud services for non-sensitive data.

Services being considered for move to the cloud include email-as-a-service and workplace-as-a-service, supported by the department’s two main data centers.

Here are some examples of what agencies that fall under the DHS umbrella spend their IT budgets on, according to immixGroup:

• Customs and Border Protection: requested $1.518 billion in FY2013, down from $1.527 billion in FY2012. RFID, biometrics, advanced analytics, and rapid response are key drivers, as is a focus on the systems lifecycle to reduce operations and maintenance costs and ensure longevity of systems.
• Transportation Security Agency: request of $769 million in FY2013 is up from $732 million in FY2012. TSA plans to increase remote capabilities, including the acquisition of Apple devices over the next three years, and migrate data centers to achieve a common enterprise infrastructure.
• US Citizenship and Immigration Services: FY2013 request is $724 million, down from $777 million in FY2012. Goals include improvements to the administration of immigration benefits, enhanced customer service, development of customized automated tools, and the replacement of outdated training applications with new technologies.
• National Protection and Programs Directorate: increased its request in FY2013 to $647 million, from $605 million in FY2012. The directorate plans to improve its investments in subcomponent IT, use DHS enterprise architecture to optimize ROI, and ensure compliance of its IT security programs.
• US Coast Guard: requested $573 million in FY2013. The Coast Guard is committed to doing "more with less," looking closely at infrastructure performance management and systems lifecycle management. Balancing its obligations to DHS and the Department of Defense is critical to the Coast Guard's success.