The UConn primary data center is an access-controlled location with the specialized support, equipment, and facilities needed to properly house the servers, storage, and key network elements for much of the University’s critical cyber infrastructure.  University IT is integrated, and the data center is essential to the delivery of all IT systems, services, and capabilities regardless of delivery modality.  ITS worked closely with Facilities Operations and University Planning, Design, and Construction (UPDC) to double power and cooling in the data center.  These updates were synchronized with Gant Science Complex renovations and construction of Science I to connect the data center to central utilities for improved resiliency.

The state of contemporary IT infrastructure is a moving target.  Many services, where it makes business sense, have moved to various cloud-hosted options, but this does not obviate the need for a fully functioning UConn data center.  Consistent with university strategic needs, our high performance computing (HPC) footprint has grown substantially, and we continue to expand virtual capabilities to support services and functions that the university cannot or will not deliver from remote locations.  The strategic direction of on-premise infrastructure remains properly organized around 1) highly specialized hardware/software solutions, such as HPC and 2) specific software solutions delivered virtually from centrally managed infrastructure.  We will continue to evolve both as ITS simultaneously deprecates the presence of independent generic hardware that is inefficient with respect to space, power, and cooling.

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