I received a copy of this memo yesterday. Lots of big research universities get name dropped. Have any of these assessments resulted in anything yet? A centralized server room for a school this big could take years to get into production.

Jesse Howard
_______________________

IT Administrator
Michigan State University Press
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www.msupress.msu.edu

Subject: Server room survey

October 24, 2010

MEMORANDUM

TO:                 Deans, Directors, and Chairs

FROM:           David Gift, Vice Provost for Libraries, Computing & Technology

SUBJECT:     Server Room Survey        

Space is one of the most precious resources at MSU or any university.  Funding is similarly precious, and the cost of energy consumption, in particular, is a matter of increasing institutional and national strategic importance, as well as ethical importance relative to environmental stewardship.  The support of computing services involves critical space and energy resources, and the demand for both computing space and energy is growing.

This year, as the economic pressures and challenges for universities continue to mount, at least three major research institutions (University of California Berkeley, University of North Carolina, Cornell University) have engaged Bain & Company to undertake broad assessments of opportunities for enhancing operational and organizational efficiencies on their campuses. Other CIC universities have undertaken similar studies on their own or with outside firms, including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, and University of Wisconsin. These studies have indicated that computer server room and datacenter consolidation would result in significant space, energy and cost savings for their respective institutions.

It is sensible to believe that the same conclusion would result at MSU, and given the current financial climate, it makes sense for us to assess our own landscape in this regard. Each of our peer institutions are now engaged in follow-up conversations about what changes to make to realize some or all of the savings potential offered by their observations, and we would need to do the same. Our initial purpose is to gather the data we need to better understand our own current conditions.

A one-page MSU survey has been discussed, refined and supported by the Academic Information Technology Planning Group (AITPG; http://lct.msu.edu/consultative-and-coordinating-groups/academic-information-technology-group.html ) and the Information Services and Technologies Coordinating Council (ISTeCC;  http://lct.msu.edu/consultative-and-coordinating-groups/istecc.html ).  Our design is to keep the task of performing the inventory manageable by asking units to use minimal time and effort to record basic information of their server rooms.

Libraries, Computing and Technology staff will be contacting each unit on campus to obtain this information using a brief one page survey.

It is expected that the data collection phase will last several months after which time a report will be produced and shared initially with the AITPG and ISTeCC groups, their MSU leadership, and Provost Wilcox and Vice President Poston.

Thank you for your assistance in accomplishing this task.

This information is available at http://computing.msu.edu/events/?p=334