The Office of State Finance is building a $35 million facility that will save taxpayers $34-$50 million annually because it consolidates 17 state agency data centers, said OSF project coordinator Dick Clark.
Ground was broken in November 2008 and the building will be completed before year’s end.
Benham Group provided architectural and engineering. CMS Construction Management is guiding the project, located on the west side of North Lincoln Boulevard, about a mile north of the Capitol.
“This is a facility that will withstand tornadoes and other natural disasters,” said Clark. “It’s really shaping up well.”
Clark credited CMS Construction Management for the accelerated construction schedule.
For optimum safety and efficiency, builders are using 16” concrete walls and 1.5” rebar. Special cooling and flood protection features further to protect data integrity.
It has multiple back-up systems, and even more backup procedures if those fail. It’s LEED-certified for optimum energy efficiency by OG&E.
In recent years, several state agencies have seen their data centers fail completely, temporarily crippling their operations.
This building comes as close as humanly possible to guaranteeing that won’t happen again, Clark said.
The Department of Human Services’ data center is well-built and backed up. However, if it were to go down, it would halt aid to thousands of needy families and senior citizens - including welfare payments, food stamps and unemployment benefits.
If the Oklahoma Tax Commission data system were to fail, tax collections would result in disaster since it’s a key fund mechanism for state operations. If the Office of State Finance data center were struck, payments to agencies would fail. That would include payroll for 42,000 state employees.
That’s why it’s safer and prudent to house all data operations in one, state-of-the art, weather and disaster reinforced building with multiple backup resources, Clark said.
