(Washington, D.C.) – The nation’s premier taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today applauded Texas Governor Rick Perry’s (R) decision to suspend his state’s contract with their information technology supplier, IBM.

            Governor Perry’s hand was forced in the matter when it was revealed that IBM was not backing up critical data in more than a dozen Texas agencies, as was agreed upon in a seven-year, $863 million contract with the computer technology giant.  A server malfunction in July of 2008 reportedly cost the Texas Attorney General’s office nearly half of eight months worth of documents, jeopardizing multiple ongoing prosecutions.

            Since the release of the Grace Commission in 1984, CAGW has been following the computing follies of the federal government.  CAGW’s latest foray into this issue is the use of mainframe computers at the federal and state level.  For big mainframe users like government, the current costs of mainframe support are massive.  According to industry experts, a government agency that might require 14,000 MIPS will face an annual IBM software bill of nearly $28 million.

These rates are incredibly expensive compared to other computing platforms.  For example, one gigabyte of RAM for an IBM mainframe costs between $8,000 and $10,000.  One gigabyte of RAM for an Intel or ADM based server is typically in the $100-200 price range.  Even at its most expensive and highest quality levels, Intel or ADM RAM typically caps off at $1,200 a gigabyte, still far lower than IBM.

When one includes all the costs associated with an IBM mainframe – including the base system, OS license, and RAM – the total is $5.9 million.  Competing servers can accomplish the same tasks for $560,000 and with full interoperability, a feature not offered by IBM mainframes.

In April, CAGW launched a project to determine the depth and breadth of the use of mainframe computers in state government by submitting information requests to the chief information officers of each state.  The information requests asked for statistics regarding the states’ use of mainframe computers, which CAGW has found are sometimes outdated and wasteful.  While this is an ongoing process, CAGW has catalogued the results and rated each state on the substance of its activities in relation to mainframes, as well as on its responsiveness in handling the request. 

            Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.