The new data center allows the University to serve PASSHE better by providing them a modern, scalable facility to support new and upgraded information technologies.
CHALLENGE
The Millersville University data center started as a computer room that held a mainframe computer. In the early 2000s, they updated some areas when the Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education (PASSHE) data center became a colocation client. PASSHE supports 14 universities and relies on the Millersville data center for reliability. The Millersville data center now hosts SAP, active directory, and the majority of the campus computing services.
The existing center walls were wood-paneled, and the room had a raised floor congested with structural, mechanical and electrical equipment. For the last four years, the Millersville University team fought a continual battle to keep the Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units running properly. When one CRAC unit went down, it quickly became 90 degrees in the space. It was time to upgrade its infrastructure and create a new data center.
The Millersville team issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking service providers who understood the needs of a high-performing educational institution and could create a data center design with N+1 UPS, in-row cooling, and aisle containment at 9kW per rack.
SOLUTION
LEDG and integraONE joined forces to respond to the Millersville RFP and awarded the project. LEDG provided expertise in energy-efficient data center design and implementation coupled with integraONE’s wide-range of data center products and solutions.
The new data center now provides more resiliency and redundancy and is energy efficient. They have growth capacity that includes a rack footprint they can add to and a cooling and power strategy that scales as they expand. Overall, the new data center allows the University to serve its client PASSHE better by providing them a modern, scalable facility to support new and upgraded information technologies.
The new Millersville University data center now has an agile, reliable, and energy efficient infrastructure.
Highlights include:
A redundant, highly efficient, 200kW modular UPS systems configured in ‘concurrently maintainable’ architecture
30″ wide equipment cabinets to allow for sufficient cable management for high density IT equipment
High-density cooling design of 9kW per rack
In-row cooling with variable speed fans that modulate cooling output based on IT load and configured in N+1 architecture
A cold aisle containment system that increases efficiency and provides the ability to support a high-density infrastructure