Loughborough University is the official preparation headquarters for the British Olympics team - but the specialist sports institution has been getting its IT fit too with a move to 'hybrid Cloud' computing. In 2009, the institution's 40-year-old data centre was out of condition, according to Dr Phil Richards, Director of IT at the University.
In common with many other universities, it was starting to show its age, and its poor power utilisation efficiency made it unlikely Loughborough would hit statutory carbon reduction targets, he notes. Richards explains:
Precise capacity planning more than a couple of years in advance is nigh-on impossible in our sector, he says: While other education establishments are investing millions in new data centre builds to increase capacity and efficiency, it became clear during the tender process that a Cloud model would provide the most strategic option for Loughborough.
Many organisations are now combining public and private Clouds to create a hybrid using a technique called Cloud bursting: a way of loading up a private Cloud with critical applications and using a public Cloud at peak times. Loughborough's version is built with computer, storage and network technology from Cisco, NetApp and CA. Although this system provides enough capacity to meet immediate local demand, on-demand burst capacity and disaster recovery capability is provided by a hosted Cloud supplied by Logicalis.
Additional public Cloud services include Google apps - available through the high-speed Joint Academic Network (JANET) - the Service Now service desk application and an automatic number plate recognition application used by the university to identify cars and charge them for parking according to the amount of 'gas' they 'guzzle'.
Richards points out that there are not many services currently being delivered remotely, but that is likely to change with the emergence of industrial scale data centres offering server and storage facilities that can be accessed through UK academic network Janet at a fraction of current costs. He has already tested moving server and storage resources between Loughborough and Logicalis Slough via that network, in what is a notable first for the higher education sector.
He says:
Loughborough's servers are arranged in a modular way; two symmetric 'mini-pods' at opposite ends of the campus comprising 6-8 chilled racks with an enclosed cooling system - Richards calls them fireproof garden sheds. Services can be run on both of pods or just on one or other of them, should either have to shut down. One pod is hosted in a roof void that would otherwise have remained unused; the building costs were around £20,000, a tiny fraction of the price of a full refurbishment.
Richards explains:
The growing computational needs of the university's researchers, and the trend towards students becoming consumers of higher education, means that demand for excellent IT infrastructure is only going to increase. Richards concludes:
