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November 13, 2009
Consultant: IBM data center contract unsustainable
A consultant hired to diagnose the ills that have plagued Texas’ $863 million data center consolidation project with IBM Corp. says in a report released Friday that the current deal is dysfunctional and unsustainable.
“If IBM isn’t making money and (the Department of Information Resources) and the state agencies aren’t getting good service, it is not going to be successful,” said Glenn Davidson of the consulting firm EquaTerra.
But this landmark project can — and should — be salvaged because the idea of streamlining the data center operations still makes sense, said Karen Robinson, the newly appointed head of the Department of Information Resources.
Robinson added that IBM has “promised me that they are on board.”
To make this project work, however, the terms of the contract will have to be revised to better reflect the goals of the project and the realities on the ground, Robinson said. And the state agencies involved will have more control over the process.
While the price tag of the seven-year project won’t change, the responsibilities of IBM and its deadlines will, Robinson said.
Previous story: Who’s at fault for state, IBM rift?
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August 18, 2009
State data center back up after outage
The Austin Data Center, which will one day soon be the data hub for 27 state agencies, was rendered mute for a few hours Tuesday afternoon.
A team led by IBM Corp. runs the data center — and its sister in San Angelo — under an $863 million state contract that has had a bevy of troubles.
David Duncan, head of communications for the Department of Information Resources, said there had been connectivity problems at the data center since 1:45 p.m. Tuesday but he did not know the specific cause of the outage.
It was back up and running by 5 p.m. and there was no data lost, Duncan said.
Only three agencies — Texas Veterans Commission, Texas State Archives and Library Commission and Duncan’s agency — are fully working out of the consolidated data center that will eventually house the data operations of 27 agencies.
The effect of the outage did not stop at the agency walls of the State Archives and Library Commission. The Web sites of 170 public libraries that are hosted by the state commission had been down and the 700 libraries that access the state’s archives were out of luck, said communications officer Derick Hackett.
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