Data Center Services

Overview: 

The Data Centers’ Colocation Center is a state-of-the-art facility where departments and units can relocate and securely house their business and research data. The service helps minimize the downtime related to power and environmental inefficiencies that often occur in smaller office locations. 

Data Center Services, under the direction of the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology, oversees the enterprise data center facilities at University Park campus. Through consolidation of Penn State IT systems, the group enhances data center management efficiency and sustainability utilizing physical colocation, VM Hosting, and Cloud Services, while ensuring the security of the University’s valuable electronic assets.

Researchers requiring physical servers or computational appliances will need to arrange to have those devices hosted in a physically secure, professionally powered, professionally cooled, professionally maintained data center that meets Penn State standards.

The purchase of a physical server or purpose-driven computational appliance should be limited to cases of necessity, driven by specific needs that cannot be otherwise met. Researchers whose requirements can be met by virtual servers hosted at VM Hosting, AWS, or Azure, or whose computations can be cost-effectively accomplished at ICS-ACI, AWS, Azure, or a national supercomputing facility, are encouraged to pursue those options.

 

Getting Started: 

Penn State Data Center Services offers a variety of physical co-location options. Visit the Penn State Data Center's website for more information.

As of 2018, several Unit IT groups may offer physical co-location options to researchers affiliated with their units. Researchers should contact their local IT unit to initiate such conversations.

 

More Information: 

Penn State Data Center About page

Penn State Data Center Virtualization Services

 

This service is part of the Computing and Research Data categories.

Summary

Availability: 

  • This is an active service

Eligibility: 

  • Data Center services are available to Penn State faculty and staff with the need to have physical equipment hosted

Requirements: 

  • For a full list of requirements, please see the Penn State Data Centers's Getting Started page

Information Security: 

  • Penn State Data Centers are secured facilities; for more information about centrally-managed data center facilities, visit the service's website directly
  • For information about the security of unit-managed data centers, contact your local IT unit

Costs: 

Support: