“The federal government's Cloud Smart strategy is the latest in a years-long series of efforts to shrink and streamline agencies' data center footprints. Whether the emphasis is on optimization or elimination, however, depends on the agency.” “I have told my staff, we have bought our last set of hardware," U.S. Marshals Service CIO Karl Mathias said at FCW's Aug. 14 cloud event. "I have no data centers. I'm located in two FBI data centers, with some hardware that I don't intend to refresh.” “The Department of Justice as a whole is also moving aggressively to shutter its data centers. Deputy CIO Melinda Rogers, who also spoke at the Aug. 14 event, said DOJ has closed 95 facilities to date, and plans to close 12 more by the end of 2020. But three "core enterprise facilities" remain central to the department's IT infrastructure, along with…” Read the full article here. Source: The stubborn persistence of government data centers – By Troy Schneider, August 14, 2019. FCW.