While most agencies of the US federal government have defined strategies for data center consolidation, many have fallen behind along the timeline the Office of Management and Budget created for the government wide consolidation initiative.

A new report by MeriTalk, a company that facilitates networking among government IT professionals, looks at what federal IT managers think about the initiative and what stage they are at with achieving its goals.

Even though many agencies have not been able to meet the deadlines, 33 percent of civilian IT managers thought in September that goals of the initiative were attainable. This was a change from a May survey, when only 12 percent of respondents were optimistic about the program.

From talking to IT managers in non-military agencies, the authors concluded that together, these managers can save $14.6bn, or about one-third of the total $45.7bn federal IT budget, through consolidation. MeriTalk estimates that collectively, civilian and military agencies are targeting a 45-percent reduction in the amount of data centers they operate.

When the consolidation initiative was originally introduced, the Office of Management and Budget estimated that the total number of federal data centers was about 1,100. But when results of a fresh data center inventory came in last month, it turned out that the total number was actually 2,094.

With agencies targeting a 45-percent reduction, the resulting number (if they are successful) will be 1,152, or higher than the original number the initiative was seeking to shrink, the researchers pointed out.

About half of the survey’s participants had successfully consolidated some data centers as of September. Still, less than one-third of respondents met the end-of-August deadline for submission of final consolidation plans under the broad initiative and many said they could use more guidance from OMB. More than 30 percent of agencies have started the process but have not yet consolidated any data centers.