It centralized the handling of the center's data including offices, laboratories and test stations; and housed general instrumentation activities serving more than one launch complex.

[2] The CIF was left dormant during the intermediate part of the space shuttle program (as other facilities such as the launch control center managed most of the instrumentation in the 2000s), and fell into disrepair.

In September 2017, all the equipment inside was donated to the visitor complex and storage facilities, while the disused building was eventually demolished in October.

[3] The CIF reflected the desire of Karl Sendler, KSC's first director of information systems, and his planners to centralize data handling.

A smaller building, later known as the CIF antenna site, was placed 1.5 miles (2.5 km) north of the Industrial Area, to be free of radio-frequency interference and have clear line-of-sight to the NASA launch complexes.