University Data Centre Transition

Speakers: Robert Harrie, Jody Pace, Curtis Wambolt, Victoria Marcil

Operating and maintaining a Data Centre facility is challenging.  Dalhousie Information Technology Services will share their data centre transition story.

Many AUCTC attendees are facing complex technical and financial challenges, relating to operating computer rooms and/or data centres to support enterprise and research computing.

Including:

  • High operating expenditures, driven by HVAC, power consumption,
  • Looming capital expenditures to replace/upgrade supporting systems,
  • Pressure from institution to relocate computer rooms and/or data centre to make room for capital projects,
  • Meeting strict research funding requirements for secure private cloud environments,
  • Ensuring traffic and/or data does not exit Canada.
  • Cost and availability of high-capacity low latency connectivity to partner research and/or application provider networks,
  • Need for primary and secondary computer rooms and/or data centres,
  • Staffing smart hands to install, investigate, repair hardware,
  • Need to scale data centre capacity serve research, artificial intelligence pilot and production initiatives, etc.
  • Environmental or location risks

In 2024, Dalhousie University went to market via a request for proposal (RFP) to choose:

  1. Primary Data Centre provider.
  2. Secondary Data Centre Provider.
  3. High-capacity diverse connectivity from campus(s) to new data centres.
  4. Expert data centre transition services.

Dalhousie ITS will share their journey. From identifying existing risks, quantifying requirements, engaging qualified potential proponents, choosing a partner and making the transition with minimal disruption and angst.

Learning Objectives:

To provide a case study that may help inform other AUCTC members that may be considering alternatives to institution owned data centre facilities.

Speaker Bios:

Rob Harrie is the Director of Infrastructure Operations at Dalhousie University, ITS.  Responsible for Networks, Systems and Data Center Infrastructure.

Jody Pace is Infrastructure Manager, Dalhousie University, ITS. Responsible for operations in Dalhousie's Data centre's.

Curtis Wambolt is the Director of IP Networks at Eastlink.

Victoria Marcil is the Director of National Major Accounts at Eastlink.