After two years of planning and construction, the Social Security Administration’s Urbana, Maryland data center is almost ready to be opened. Federal News Radio reported that officials should have the keys to the new facility in hand by the end of the summer.
According to Bill Zielinski, SSA chief information officer, the project was put on hold for a time so that administrators and the IT team could improve on their legacy infrastructure to establish a more modern system. As the original structure was built in 1979, the infrastructure was in need of improvements.
“We didn’t want to simply move the old platform into a new, enabling building,” Zielinski said. “We have a really mindful plan that says our future state includes these sort of things, which includes cloud-based storage solutions, which includes a much greater level of virtualization. We’ve already begun the transition, so when we move to the data center, it’s in this new future state and not in this past state.”
Business Facilities noted that the new $192 million Maryland data center will feature 300,000 square feet of space for data components, office suites and a warehouse area and will be able to support 10 megawatts of power. The project was designed to achieve Tier III certification and LEED Gold rating by utilizing specialized materials for data center sustainability, including energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and on-premise renewable electricity sources.
The SSA also leveraged help from several other organizations on the Maryland data center project, including CenturyLink and Verizon, which will be in charge of security and and the wide area network. Overall, 280 vendors wanted to participate in the project, scheduled for completion later this year.
The Maryland data center site is also home to another 60,000 square foot facility belonging to housing loan provider Fannie Mae.
