Goals & Benefits to Campus
Starting in September 2021, a high-level assessment of UC Berkeley’s Warren Hall data center was performed to identify current costs and conditions, as well as determine potential options for a new data center and cloud services strategy. Maintaining the Warren Hall data center and the decentralized server closets over the long term is costly with the potential to expose substantial uncertainty to the University given Berkeley’s research and administrative mission will become increasingly at risk unless steps are taken to modernize its infrastructure. A shift to a more modern computing strategy offering different types of services and support for the public cloud would allow for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and security of data center assets and also enable innovation and a new competitive advantage for research, faculty recruitment, retention, and more.
Measures of Success
The current state assessment evaluated the existing data center environment and identified potential future state strategy combining data center services in conjunction with public cloud options that support the growth of data needs at UC Berkeley.
Measures of success will be determined during a future implementation using the following categories:
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Academic and Research Alignment
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Cost Leadership
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Risk Management
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Operational Flexibility
Additional Considerations
- Culture and other influencing factors: Communicating project information, such as the case for change, project timeline, approach, and specific impacts on user groups is a central function of organizational readiness and UC Berkeley’s strategy for change. Communication will be delivered through workshops and town halls, websites, and executive leadership briefings and engagements.
- Financial planning and incentives: As UC Berkeley analyzes the possibility of new data center services realized through both local and off-site server co-location options, it is also important to consider a new, long-term funding model. This will be achieved by transparent communication that will allow the Berkeley community to clearly visualize how IT is financed across campus. Additionally, the new funding structure must have appropriate incentives to promote the use of bIT services and reduce the number of server closets across campus for a more secure and streamlined approach. Lastly, the new funding model will allow stakeholders to more easily direct grant money to fund resources and shared Berkeley-wide data center services needs.
Progress
The initiative's assessment phase has completed, yielding an assessment of UC Berkeley’s data infrastructure. We found that a one-size-fits-all data center, public cloud program and ~142 decentralized server closets across campus do not allow for efficiency, effectiveness, or security of the University's assets.
Our analysis has provided University leadership with a high-level estimate of new options, pros/cons, and an updated financial profile. During the original current state assessment, Deloitte interviewed 81 stakeholders across 28 interviews and documented the key themes and anecdotes heard across campus. The future state assessment provided options that campus stakeholders are evaluating, including refining the financial model supporting University operations, to determine the best solution for Berkeley.
Contact Us
You may reach the initiative either by submitting feedback using our contact form, or by emailing the initiative directly at: data_infrastructure_initiative@lists.berkeley.edu