The Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) at Waterford Institute of Technology has a new energy-efficient data centre to support its network-based research projects in the area of telecommunications networking.
Right now, TSSG is working on an average of 40 to 50 research and development projects. It has been recognised as one of the top 10 European institutes driving ‘future internet’ research.
Kedington Group has designed the centre at TSSG, which has an IT power load of 300Kw, with some cabinets engineered to house 30kw of IT equipment. It deployed Rittal LCP technology, which uses chilled water (at 15°C) and will provide free cooling 72pc of the time, for the new data centre.
Minimising downtime
Ger Kilcommons, general manager, Kedington Munster, said the minimising of non-IT costs, such as cooling, was critical to the overall efficiency of the centre and TSSG’s ability to compete for future research projects.
“The data centre will be able to support numerous research projects simultaneously, many dealing with cloud computing and others requiring a great deal of data crunching and advanced networking,” said Jerry Horgan, senior systems engineer at TSSG.
“Energy efficiency was critical, but the data centre also had to be flexible, allowing for rapid reconfiguration at regular intervals as research projects changed. We started talking to Kedington about the centre’s design almost two years ago. It introduced us to SYSTIMAX iPatch, which provides a full life-cycle view of cabling network within the building. The system will enable us to minimise tool downtime and cost of repair,” said Horgan.
The new centre at TSSG will officially open this month.
Leading-edge research in Waterford
3CS is the industry-focused research and commercialisation arm of TSSG. Both TSSG and 3CS work closely with Irish companies offering specialised knowledge in the ICT sector, and R&D that can be used to develop new products and services, develop new features for existing products and also test and validate products.
In October last year, a team of researchers at TSSG were appointed as lead co-ordinators of ENDORSE, a €3.7m EU-wide research project to create technical and legal framework for data management to prevent the accidental or unauthorised use of sensitive personal information.
Last year, a TSSG research team was also awarded the leadership of SOCIETIES – a €15.8m EU project that aims to revolutionise how businesses work and how emergency services respond in the face of disaster.
The project, which began in October 2010, will run for three and a half years. The funding will also allow TSSG to collaborate with and draw expertise from Intel, IBM, LAKE Communications, Telecom Italia and Portugal Telecom Inovacao.
