Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration
Office of Audit
VIRTUAL
SERVER TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED, BUT ADDITIONAL ACTIONS ARE
NEEDED TO FURTHER REDUCE THE NUMBER OF SERVERS AND INCREASE SAVINGS
Issued on March 30, 2012
Highlights
Highlights of Report Number: 2012-20-029 to the Internal Revenue Service Chief
Technology Officer.
IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS
The
IRS implemented server virtualization technology to reduce the number of Wintel
servers needed for tax administration and lower operational costs to the
taxpayers. As of the end of Fiscal Year
2011, the IRS estimated that server virtualization had saved approximately $10.2
million in equipment costs, and it expects to save approximately $1.3 million annually
in decreased electrical costs beginning in Fiscal Year 2013. The number of Wintel servers could be further
reduced for increased efficiency and cost savings of approximately $7.73
million.
WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT
This review was included in our Fiscal Year 2011
Annual Audit Plan and addresses the major management challenge of
Modernization. The overall objective of
this review was to evaluate the
effectiveness and efficiency of the IRS’s efforts to consolidate and virtualize
its servers. In addition, the
Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative was passed in February 2010,
mandating a reduction in the number of Federal data centers.
WHAT TIGTA FOUND
The IRS successfully implemented server virtualization
technology to improve server efficiency and realize cost savings. The Server Consolidation and Virtualization
Project focused on establishing a virtual server infrastructure and moving
approximately 2,500 physical Wintel servers at 13 data center locations to the
virtual environment. As of the end of Fiscal Year 2011, the IRS had
approximately 1,800 virtual servers operating on 234 physical host servers
in the virtual environment, resulting in the previously stated decrease in
equipment and electrical costs.
The IRS does not have a plan
for virtualizing Wintel servers at its field offices outside of the 13 data center locations. The IRS estimates there are approximately 650
Wintel servers in its field locations that can be decommissioned and added to
the virtual server environment. By virtualizing these servers, the IRS estimates it could
realize additional savings of approximately $7.73 million ($7.26 million in
equipment savings and $0.47 million in electrical savings over five years). Aside from the cost savings, these actions also
help the IRS to meet Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative goals.
WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED
TIGTA recommended
that the Chief Technology Officer 1) develop and implement a process to
identify servers currently located in field offices that can be virtualized and
2) create and implement a plan to virtualize those servers.
In their response to the report, IRS
management concurred with both recommendations.
The IRS plans to 1) develop and implement a process to identify servers
located in field offices that can be virtualized and 2) create and
implement a plan to virtualize those servers.
READ THE
FULL REPORT
To view the report,
including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go
to:
http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2012reports/201220029fr.html.
E-mail Address: TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov
Phone Number:
202-622-6500
Website: http://www.tigta.gov