Sacramento -- The Department of General Services (DGS), the Department of Information Technology (DOIT), the Teale Data Center and McCuen Properties, broke ground today for the relocation of the state's largest main frame data processing center. When completed next year, the new Stephen P. Teale Data Center in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County) will be a state-of-the-art facility allowing the state to meet growing data processing needs while saving the taxpayers millions of dollars.

 

"This is a good location, a cost-effective move, and a long-term solution to meet the state's growing data processing requirements," said DGS director Peter G. Stamison. "We are out of the floodplain and on solid ground financially."

 

An analysis of the cost of moving to the new facility (versus staying in the existing site) revealed savings of $4 million over the life of the lease. The current facility, which was constructed in 1980, is in a designated flood plain, and is not suitable for expansion.

 

"This fulfills one of DOIT's critical initiatives and allows us to plan for the consolidation of California's 13 data centers at some point in the future," said DOIT Executive Director John Thomas Flynn.

 

Completion of the new 137,000 square foot facility is scheduled for July of 1999, with a phased move-in of its 365 employees and multiple data processing systems beginning a month later.

 

The Teale data processing center is the largest in state government, supplying data processing services to more than 250 state and local government agencies 24 hours a day. Upwards of 150,000 computers access Teale's services at any given time. Some of the most critical agencies in state government use Teale's data processing services, including the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Finance, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Transportation, the Secretary of State, and the State Controller's Office.

 

In 1997 a DOIT study recommended relocation of the Teale facility from its current site in north Sacramento as soon as feasible. After reviewing several possible sites throughout Sacramento, the Highway 50 corridor in Rancho Cordova was chosen.

 

The location (3101 Gold Camp Drive, between Zinfandel and Sunrise, south of U.S. 50) meets Teale's design criteria, including the availability of fiber optics communications from multiple carriers, redundant electrical feeds, and a nine-acre site that is designed for future expansion to accommodate most other large state data processing needs. DGS has the option of purchasing the new complex prior to the end of the fifth year of the lease.

 

State Senator Stephen P. Teale carried the legislation that created the Data Center and authorized the consolidation of state data processing functions into centralized data centers such as Teale. He passed away last year.