CHALLENGE
A prestigious Ivy League R1 university with a global reputation for engineering and scientific research was facing increasing demand for high-performance computing (HPC) to support advanced modeling, simulation, and AI-driven research.
As computing workloads and computational needs grew, the institution recognized the need for a clearer strategy in how to support and scale its data center environments. Distributed server rooms had evolved independently and were no longer aligned with current reliability, efficiency, or sustainability expectations. To move forward with confidence, the university needed a comprehensive assessment that would reveal the best way to meet—and exceed—its long-term high-performance research computing requirements.
GAINING CLARITY IN A FRAGMENTED ENVIRONMENT
Over time, the university had accumulated a patchwork of server rooms, each operated by different engineering and scientific departments and maintained to varying standards. This decentralized model created challenges for capacity, reliability, and scalability. Some rooms lacked adequate power and cooling; others no longer aligned with the school’s important sustainability commitments. Together, these inconsistencies made it difficult to support the rapidly growing computing needs of its renowned research community.
Complicating the effort was the number of stakeholders involved, ranging from Facilities, Academic Computing, and Research Computing to Space Planning, Campus Utilities, Network Infrastructure teams, and Green Building Services, as well as the construction and commissioning partners. Before any design or construction decisions could be made, leadership needed a clear, campus-wide understanding of what existed, what was needed, and what path forward would best support advanced, world-class research computing.
A COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION AND ROADMAP
LEDG began by conducting a detailed, multi-facility evaluation of the existing environments. This included documenting physical infrastructure across several server rooms, assessing equipment inventories, and identifying which assets could be reused as part of a consolidation effort. Many of these areas had adapted on their own, so LEDG worked closely with departmental leads to understand their workloads, constraints, and future expectations.
Once the existing conditions were fully understood, LEDG collaborated with the extended team to identify and evaluate potential locations for a new, centralized data center. Two options emerged: a large storage space and an existing server room with significant deficiencies. LEDG modeled each option and collaborated with stakeholders to evaluate trade-offs in cost, feasibility, and long-term scalability.
The assessment provided the university with a unified understanding of its computing landscape and a clear recommendation for how to support future growth. With this guidance, leadership selected the existing server room for modernization, informed by LEDG’s extensive evaluation of all key factors that left no stone unturned.
A CLEAR PATH FORWARD SUPPORTED BY A MODERNIZED FACILITY
By the end of the project, the university had more than a renovated data center. The LEDG team delivered a strategic roadmap for how to support high-performance research computing well into the future. Through a detailed assessment, followed by a comprehensive design, the new data center plan enables the school to:
• Improve cooling performance supporting GPU-dense workloads
• Increase electrical reliability for critical research computing operations
• Consolidate operations, reducing management overhead
• Optimize layout and airflow for energy efficiency
• Create a modern environment ready for large-scale HPC growth
• Develop a solution that aligns with the school’s long-term sustainability commitments
With a clear strategy in place, the university has the confidence to align infrastructure investments with its long-term research, sustainability, and high-performance computing goals.
“Collaborating with a dynamic university team, we delivered a digital infrastructure designed to support the forward-thinking ambitions of its research community.”
Todd J. Boucher, Founder
Leading Edge Design Group