A group of five Massachusetts universities launched a data center in Holyoke, Massachusetts, they will use for scientific research.
Called the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, the facility’s total size is bigger than 90,000 sq ft, and its total power capacity is 15MW, 10MW of which is critical power available to the computer floor. The facility gets the bulk of its power (70%) from hydroelectric plants.
It uses outside air for cooling through most of the year and has a hot-aisle containment system for energy efficient cooling.
It was developed by a group of universities, which will also operate it. The schools include Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts.
The facility is expected to meet the universities’ research-computing needs for five-10 years. Research areas will include fundamental science, social trends, health, environment and energy, among others.
The data center cost US$95m to build, $25m of which was paid by the state in a funding effort spearheaded by the administration of governor Deval Patrick and lieutenant governor Timothy Murray.
EMC Corp. and Cisco Systems pitched in on the private-business side of the project. EMC is based in nearby Hopkinton, Massachusetts, while Cisco is a Silicon Valley giant.
The US federal government helped as well. The project qualified for tax breaks under the Federal New Markets Tax Credit Program, an economic development program designed to encourage investment in businesses and real-estate projects in low-income communities.
“This landmark project is a testament to what is possible when government, academia and business work together, and it will serve as an economic development model for the state and the nation for generations to come,” governor Patrick said.
The project generated US$16.6m in contracts with a dozen local subcontractors and consultants and employed about 400 construction workers.