The D.C. technology office is looking to move much of its critical data more than 100 miles away from the city to protect it in the case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The District stores much of its electronic information at two data centers, one at 222 Massachusetts Ave. NW and another at 2919 Benning Road NE, roughly three miles apart.
Their proximity, according to planning documents produced by the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), “exposes the District to operational issues and a loss of data if either or both data centers became non-operational due to natural or man-made catastrophes.”
OCTO is soliciting a consultant to find a new location for one of the two data centers at least 100 miles from the District, said Christina Fleps, OCTO’s acting public information officer.
The other will be moved to a new location or substantially rehabilitated.
Most agency files are stored at the two locations, including Metropolitan Police Department databases, Department of Motor Vehicle customer service applications, Department of Transportation data and mapping applications.
The infrastructure at the two data centers is “antiquated,” Fleps said, with power and air conditioning systems approaching 20 years old.
But she said the data is not at risk.
“Although we have pre-purchased spare parts and maintenance, as time goes by the parts and services required to maintain the systems will become scarcer and more expensive,” she said.
