Federal News Radio is reporting on its website that the Army Corps of Engineers has awarded $1.2 billion contract for a huge data center to help the government lock down its networks. The data center is for the National Security Agency, and part of the government's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a program started in 2008 to improve how the federal government protects sensitive information from hackers and nation states trying to break into federal agency networks.
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A consortium of construction companies will build the center south of Salt Lake City, Utah. According reporting in NextGov, the facility will include 1.5 million square feet -- for a physical footprint about a third larger than the U.S. Capitol and the House and Senate office buildings.
The Corps of Engineers also said that the NSA facility would include 100,000 square feet of raised data center space for servers and storage, 900,000 square feet for technical support and offices, and 500,000 square feet of support facilities, including an electric substation, fuel storage and a visitor control center.
NSA estimated the data center would provide between 5,000 and 7,000 construction jobs, and employ 200 people once it opened.
The data center will occupy 200 acres inside Camp Williams, a 28,000 acre base for the Utah National Guard next to Lehi, Utah, and north of Utah Lake. The facility will have substantial power requirements -- 65 megawatts -- and an abundant availability of low-cost power was one reason NSA chose Utah as the site for the center, rather than outside its headquarters at Fort Meade in Maryland, said the reports.
SOURCE: Federal News Radio; NextGov
