Last December, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire promised a state budget with something for everyone to hate. Well, not everybody. To be clear, there is a lot to hate in the painfully balanced budget, which made deep cuts to higher education and health to balance the budget in the face of a $9 billion deficit. But a new state data center will rise from the budget ashes.
Interim state CIO Jim Albert says that the governor saw the data center and adjoining office complex as so central to her campaign for government reform that the administration held on tight to the new data center as budget negotiations came down to the wire last week.
The new data center would bring the state Department of Information Services (DIS) under one roof for the first time in the agency's history. It would also provide a fully modern and green platform for the technology component of the administration's shared services strategy, a priority in the administration's reform agenda.
An earlier cost estimate for the new state data center was pegged at $242 million, which would buy 160,000 square feet of data center and another 160 square feet of office space for DIS. The final deal includes another 80,000 square feet of office space, the occupants for which will be decided by the Office of Financial Management.
The secret sauce in getting a new data center through a nightmarish budget season is the financing structure. It will be built as a lease back under an arrangement struck by the legislature last year. Albert says that, with addition of more office space, they have not reached a new guaranteed maximum price with the firm that was selected for the building project. Those details will be worked out before construction begins.
Interim state CIO Jim Albert says that the governor saw the data center and adjoining office complex as so central to her campaign for government reform that the administration held on tight to the new data center as budget negotiations came down to the wire last week.
The new data center would bring the state Department of Information Services (DIS) under one roof for the first time in the agency's history. It would also provide a fully modern and green platform for the technology component of the administration's shared services strategy, a priority in the administration's reform agenda.
An earlier cost estimate for the new state data center was pegged at $242 million, which would buy 160,000 square feet of data center and another 160 square feet of office space for DIS. The final deal includes another 80,000 square feet of office space, the occupants for which will be decided by the Office of Financial Management.
The secret sauce in getting a new data center through a nightmarish budget season is the financing structure. It will be built as a lease back under an arrangement struck by the legislature last year. Albert says that, with addition of more office space, they have not reached a new guaranteed maximum price with the firm that was selected for the building project. Those details will be worked out before construction begins.
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