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The total opportunity for savings is so large, Kundra explained, because for years each government agency tended to buy and build its own technology systems. Across the federal government, he noted, hundreds of different software programs are used for financial accounting and hundreds of different ones for human resources management. The number of data centers swelled from 432 in 1998 to more than 2,000 by last year.

This week&x2019;s announcement, analysts say, is a significant step along that path, naming 178 data centers to be closed in 2012. It is the second step in the program. In April, 137 computer centers were singled oU.S. plans to shut down 800 computer centersut to be shut down by the end of this year.

But government officials say the federal agencies are moving ster than the initial plans, with a total of 195 closings now scheduled by the end of 2011. That would help lift the total by the end of 2012 to 373 data centers.

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Computer centers typically do not employ many people to tend the machines, but analysts say tens of thousands of jobs will likely be eliminated.

The government, although late in starting, is on track for a particularly aggressive winnowing of its data centers, encouraged by the need for budgetary belt tightening.

The government is following the lead of private business. For years, companies have been using software that shares computing tasks across several machines in a data center. The task-juggling technology enables computers to run at r higher levels of efficiency and use than in the past, doing more computing chores with fewer computers, and fewer data centers.

Shawn McCarthy, an analyst at IDC, a research firm, said, &x201c;The data consolidation is really part of a much larger reworking of information technology by the government. You start with the technology plumbing, but the goal is more responsive and efficient government services.&x201d;

&x201c;It is ambitious,&x201d; said Darrell West, an expert in government and technology policy at the Brookings Institution. &x201c;In an era of massive deficits,Computers the federal government has to figure out ways to get more efficient. The data center consolidation is part of that process.&x201d;

The federal government plans to shut 40 percent of its computer centers over the next four years to reduce its technology budget and modernize the way it uses computers to manage data and provide services to citizens.

Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, explained that the data center consolidation was part of a broader strategy to embrace more efficient, Internet-era computing. In particular, the government is shifting to cloud computing, in which users access online applications like e-mail remotely, over the Internet.

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Tapping cloud computing services, Kundra said, could save the government an additional $5 billion a year, reducing the need for individual government agencies to buy their own software and hardware.

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&x201c;Redundant systems and applications sprouted like weeds,&x201d; Kundra said. &x201c;We need to shift resources away from duplicative systems and use them to improve the citizen experience.&x201d;

The federal government is the largest buyer of information technology in the world, spending about $80 billion a year. The Obama administration, in plans detailed Wednesday, is taking aim at some of that by closing 800 of its sprawling collection of 2,000 data centers. The savings, analysts say, will translate into billions of dollars a year and acres of freed-up real estate.