The University of Texas Austin has completed the relocation of IT equipment to its new energy efficient data center. The school hired Transitional Data Services (TDS) to implement the move, which included de-installation, transport and re-installation of all IT infrastructure components.

The data center was completed in 2010. The university built it to address growing computing needs of the campus and to save money by moving servers that were maintained by separate departments within their own buildings into a dedicated facility.

According to Active Power, which supplied its flywheel-based UPS systems for the data center, the university invested US$32m into the project, which was a retrofit of an existing building.

In addition to buying energy efficient UPS systems, the school used computational fluid dynamics analysis to optimize air flow and hot-aisle containment in the facility. The team also deployed a monitoring solution to continue working on better energy efficiency.

TDS uses the Transition Manager tool it designed specifically for the purpose to implement client data center migrations. The tool is used to ensure timely, predictable performance and real-time communication.

It includes a web-based dashboard that shows real-time status of all assets, a supervisory console that can be used to manage staff who are working on the move and wireless barcode scanners used to ensure accuracy and reduce downtime associated with relocation.