Enabling Modern IT Infrastructure in a Historic Washington Building
Read how CDW Government helped adapt a historic building with advanced IT infrastructure and operations to house a nation’s diplomatic headquarters.
Operations need a scalable, secure HQ for workers and data
54%
percentage of data center operators who cite capacity expansion as their main driver of spending increases1
35%
percentage increase in data breaches reported by U.S. government entities from 2022 to 2023 2
How can an outdated structure house a modern government’s IT operations?
A REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
Challenging Updates for a Historic D.C. Building
A foreign country purchased a historic building in Washington, D.C. to be its new diplomatic headquarters, but the building needed significant updates to support modern IT infrastructure and operations — and its traditional architecture and dense building materials made these updates especially challenging.
THE TURNING POINT
One Partner to Manage All the Complexities
The new occupants brought in CDW Government to handle the complexities of the project and deliver a modern, secure IT infrastructure, including:
- Advanced data center facilities
- Cabling for thousands of devices and users
- A full-stack solution for networking and wireless connectivity with a next-generation user experience
- Physical security infrastructure
- Data security suitable for the client’s most sensitive materials
THE RESULTS
A Modern Environment to Support Current and Future Workloads
The historic building was successfully updated to support the deployment of all the IT capabilities the country’s diplomatic service required.
Here’s why it worked:
- CDW Assessment Services appraised the building’s spaces and infrastructure to create a roadmap for deploying enterprise wireless and networking solutions along with distribution frames with rack and power for demanding workloads
- CDW addressed physical security requirements and building renovations simultaneously, ensuring that the modern security infrastructure was seamlessly incorporated into the remodel
- CDW Technology Support worked closely with the nation’s diplomatic service after deployment to ensure the integrated hardware, software and services continued to enable long-term success
What’s next?
The success of the Washington building transformation has led to a continued partnership between CDW Government and the nation’s diplomatic service at another consulate location.
Sources:
1 Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2024, 2024
2 Statista, “Number of cases of data violation due to cyberattacks in the United States from 2020 to 2023, by industry,” 2024
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