The Advanced Computation Building Data Center has been a cornerstone of research computing and infrastructure on campus for decades. Originally built by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to support research computing projects, the data center has evolved significantly to meet campus’ growing demands.
Today, the growing ACB Data Center, now run by the Office of the Chief Information Officer, is part of campuswide data center operations, ensuring top-tier infrastructure for faculty, researchers and staff across the university. This service, created in response to the data center consolidation effort, uses data centers at ACB, the Digital Computer Laboratory and historically, Henry Administration Building.
What exactly is a data center and why is it important for campus?
Brad Mahaffey, associate CIO of enterprise infrastructure at the Office of the CIO, explained that data centers “are a professionally managed environment that has capacity for high electrical needs, large amounts of cooling, physical security and robust networking space… Because data center space is expensive per square foot, finding the efficiencies and methods to put as many systems together in as little space as possible saves money, aligns with environmental initiatives and allows for hosting of systems in professionally managed spaces.”
The ACB Data Center hosts data from various units and for many different purposes. Colleges and units host administrative files and machines that run applications, websites and store data including critical campus infrastructure. The largest users of ACB are U of I research systems. One research group may have one or several servers they’re using to run and store data for their sponsored research.
With the growth of cloud storage options over the past couple of decades, the possibility of migrating to fully online storage has been weighing on the minds of many. Mahaffey explains why the complete cloud storage option is not ideal: “While this has made sense for a subset of workloads, moving all systems and services to the public cloud loses efficiency and becomes cost prohibitive. As a result, many organizations have been taking a ‘hybrid’ approach to hosting in the public cloud and on-premises. Also, generative AI is now pushing the need for data center space at an unprecedented pace.”
Critical infrastructure enhancements: The ACB generator project
A major milestone in ACB’s development has been the recent installation of a dedicated generator, enhancing the facility’s ability to provide access to its data even in the event of a power disruption. Before the generator installation, the ACB data center’s power supply was directly affected by campus power, meaning that a campus power disruption resulted in a power outage at the ACB data center, too. This meant that anything being run on a system powered by the ACB data center (including virtual services, websites, files, software and much more) would not be accessible during the power interruption.
ACB’s new generator, installed January 25, provides continuity of necessary power to the data center’s general infrastructure systems and cooling even in the event of a campus outage, increasing the data center’s reliability and capability.
Mahaffey expanded on the value of ACB to campus. “ACB has high potential. It is relatively new compared to DCL and HAB, the other Office of the CIO data centers, has a robust infrastructure in place and has capacity for expansion in the current space if needed. Without the generator in ACB, we would not be able to decommission the HAB data center. Since the generator installation, the remaining tenant in the HAB data center is now able to move their infrastructure to ACB. This returns space on the main quad for repurposing and avoids costly investments needed to bring the infrastructure of that data center up to standard,” Mahaffey said.
The installation process for the generator was a complex undertaking requiring a full power shutdown from January 8–14. This planned outage provided an opportunity to perform additional critical infrastructure upgrades including rewiring emergency power-off systems and conducting long-overdue maintenance on a 4,000-amp transformer. These improvements will enable ongoing maintenance without future disruptions, ensuring long-term reliability.
Despite numerous logistical and supply chain challenges—including delayed equipment deliveries, permit approvals and the need to schedule shutdowns during minimal-impact periods—the project was successfully completed, providing a robust, secure, reliable computing resource to support the teaching, learning and research missions of the university.
The data center consolidation effort
The installation of ACB Data Center’s new generator is part of a longer campus initiative. In 2009, the Office of the Provost initiated a consolidation effort to reduce the number of standalone data centers on campus. This initiative stemmed from both environmental and fiscal responsibilities. At the time, there were 162 data center spaces, which have since been reduced to 67.
The initiative provided a centrally funded and maintained data center environment, allowing campus units to house rack-mountable systems without additional costs. By 2018, the responsibility for managing shared data centers transitioned to the Office of the CIO. Since then, key sites in the Henry Administration Building and Digital Computing Lab have been decommissioned, with plans to retire additional HAB space in the next one to two years, further streamlining campus data infrastructure.
The shared data center model offers numerous advantages. “Providing low-barrier hosting for systems ensures that the systems are being run in an ideal environment for their functionality, avoids creating ‘ad hoc’ campus spaces where these are hosted and consolidates high consumption data center space into as few areas as possible. Further, it allows for a trained team of data center engineers to manage these complex spaces, rather than passing the burden onto IT and facilities managers,” Mahaffey said.
Any campus unit can use data center shared services without any additional charge.
“Data center operations will receive, install and connect systems to power and networking. The system owners/administrators, or tenants, have physical access to the data center in order to get to their machine when needed. When a machine goes end of life, the data center operations team will likewise uninstall the system and prepare it to be picked up for processing by the owning unit,” Mahaffey said.
The generator at ACB is the largest and most impactful item from the Office of the CIO investment.
Past and future collaboration
The ACB generator project was made possible through a strategic partnership between the Office of the CIO and National Center for Supercomputing Applications, with funding allocated by the Office of the Provost. As part of a broader campus data center strategy established in 2021, the Office of the CIO has focused on supporting small-scale research, administrative and critical high-availability workloads, while NCSA has expanded the National Petascale Computing Facility for larger research computing needs.
Mahaffey talked about the value of this collaboration. “Both units faced challenges with implementation of their projects due to high inflation, raising cost of labor, lack of availability of necessary equipment and other external factors. Nonetheless, both units have made significant headway toward carrying out the goals established in 2021. The generator at ACB is the largest and most impactful item from the Office of the CIO investment,” Mahaffey said.
As campus data needs continue to evolve, the ACB Data Center remains a pivotal resource for researchers, faculty and administrative staff. The recent generator installation not only enhances reliability but also supports long-term sustainability efforts by reducing the campus’s overall data center footprint. With ongoing consolidation efforts, the campus remains committed to providing world-class computing resources that support innovation and operational excellence.
More information about the data center and services available to campus units can be found on the data center service webpage.