State Data Center (Debt) Allocation

Page updated 10/31/2024

Allocation goal/methodology

Washington state decided to build an on-premises, state-run data center. The data center facility and the attached office building are modern, LEED-silver facilities, and are expensive to own and operate. Ideally, WaTech would pay for the cost of the building using the revenue generated by the services provided within these buildings, but this model does not work for the state data center because the revenue generated is nowhere near sufficient. To help establish a sustainable financial model for the state data center, the cost of the debt service for the state data center is spread across all state agencies as a stand-alone allocation. This prevents WaTech from needing to dramatically increase rates for their services just to pay for the state’s debt service.

Funding for the state data center is based on total agency IT spend. Agencies document their IT expenditures by coding transactions as project type X or Y in the Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS). The Office of Financial Management (OFM) extracts the total amount of project X/Y expenditures from the most recent completed fiscal year from AFRS.

What services are included in this allocation?

There are no services associated with this allocation. The State Data Center Allocation was established solely to pay for the debt service on the state data center building. It does not pay for the rent for the office building and does not pay for the operations of the state data center.

How is this allocation governed?

OFM calculates the allocation methodology and builds the calculations into the central services model. The Legislature approves this methodology by appropriating the expenditures into the operating and transportation budgets.

How do agencies leverage this allocation?

This allocation is used to pay for the debt service on the state data center building. There are no services associated with the allocation, but establishing a dedicated revenue source for the debt service payments allows WaTech to avoid raising service rates.

How do agencies get billed for this allocation?

The naming convention for this allocation will be Allocation – State Data Center Debt Svc (EL L070).