The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided the Social Security Administration (SSA) $500 million for the replacement of SSA's National Computer Center (NCC) at Durham, NC. In assessing the Agency's future information system plans, the SSA Inspector General looked at the Agency's strategic plans for information technology (IT) strategic planning, disaster recovery, infrastructure issues, and NCC replacement strategy. The IG found that SSA needs to focus on (1) strengthening the IT strategic planning process; (2) identify ways to accelerate planning, constructing and operating the new data center; (3) develop contingency plans for addressing IT processing requirements and disaster recovery procedures in the event the Durham Support Center and/or the new data center are not operational within the scheduled timeframes; and (4) establish controls and a detailed strategy for timely maintenance, repairs, upgrades and replacement of critical IT infrastructure in the new data center to prevent the current situation at the NCC from recurring.
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