DTMB's Data Centers

Dear Teammates,

Over the years, several vendors approached DTMB to discuss a possible public-private partnership to supply the state with data center resources. Our facilities were cramped, and we believed their suggestions were worth exploring. About four years ago, we issued a Request for Information to gauge the interest of prospective partners and hear their suggestions for improving service and reducing costs. In January we posted a Request for Proposals, and various vendors submitted plans to provide data center resources. We did considerable research to decide if these proposals had merit.

Over time things changed.

This year, we moved a lot of data from servers to cloud resources. Likewise, our growing use of virtualization decreased our need for physical space. These efficiencies reduced the burden on our data centers. Also we had a vision for this project. Besides providing data storage and services, we hoped this project would be a catalyst for economic growth.

In the end, the numbers weren’t there. Although the project certainly has potential, it’s hard to quantify the economic impact. Also the end cost didn’t generate the savings we anticipated. None of the proposals would have saved the 5 percent required by Civil Service to shift work to the private sector.

We’ve done a lot of work on this project – developing proposals, reviewing bids, visiting facilities and discussing options. As a result, we’ve learned a lot and decided that our best choice is retaining our data centers and continuing to operate them within state government. It was a lengthy process, and we appreciate your patience as we weighed the options and benefits. 

Our research, however, underscored the importance of locating a data center and backup center in different regions. This distance provides another safeguard in the event that our centers are targeted. The possibility of two locations in different regions will continue to be a focus.

Thank you all for the great work you do every day – in the data centers and across the department. DTMB and its employees play a pivotal role in making state government run.

As always, I invite your input and encourage you to send comments and suggestions to me at behend@michigan.gov.

Sincerely,

David