InformationWeek Government has an article about the current state of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Data Center.

Social Security Data Center Approaching Collapse
An inspector general finds agency operations at high risk due to delays in upgrading its critical infrastructure and software.
By Elizabeth Montalbano , InformationWeek
January 3, 2011 02:08 PM

Compromised timing for a new data center transition and a slowdown in application modernization are among the top IT management challenges facing the Social Security Administration (SSA), according to a recent report by the agency's inspector general (IG).

It is projected 2012 the outdated data center may not function, and a replacement cannot be built until 2015

The agency has received more than $500 million so far to replace the outdated center, which is now so severely strained by an expanded workload over its time of operation that it may not be able to function by 2012, according to the report.

However, the SSA does not foresee completing the new center until 2015, a project the IG deems as "imperative" considering the precarious position of the existing NCC.

The SSA’s failure may be the biggest opportunity to reinvent IT in government as a catastrophic event may question their methods.

How many start-ups reached a point where their data center infrastructure (HW & SW architecture) would not scale, and part of the strategy is to be acquired by a big pocket company like Google to port their code on to a better platform.