Data Center RFP

After many meetings and quite a bit of work from many dedicated team members the Data Center RFP hit the street Tuesday. If you don't follow this blog, (I know not much to follow), we've been working on an RFP that will bring in a consulting firm to study the data centers and server rooms at Penn State.

The team members are: Ian Salada, Co-Chair, Mark Saussure, Co-Chair, Vijay Agarwala, Lisa Berkey, Dave Beyerle, Deborah Blythe, Ron Dodson, Ken Forstmeier, Ben Grissinger, Tom Irwin, Mike Kauffman, Mark Miller, Kevin Morooney, J. Daniel Morris, Neal Vines, Jeff Wolfe, Jeff Kuhns, Meg Harpster, Monica Reed

The current plan is to have a pre-bid conference in a couple of weeks to allow potential bidders to ask questions and for us to answer as best we can regarding the scope of the project and deliverables among other things. Meg Harpster from purchasing has been a tremendous help in getting this document together and advising on what we can and can't say. Now and in the future while working through the process.

I've been on several RFP committees but never as co-chair. There are many logistical issues that you can imagine that must be handled, none greater than getting Kevin and Jeff in the same room at the same time! At any rate once we have our pre-bid conference at UP we will be traveling to Altoona to allow the potential bidders to get a flavor for one of our campuses. Of course Altoona being one of the largest we'll explain some of the challenges as well as the efficiencies of those smaller.

All of IT at Penn State will be involved in this process. The survey that I alluded to in last months blog will be just a guideline. There will be many site visits required by the winning bidder to best understand the parameters of each server space at Penn State. I believe the range of server spaces described in the RFP echo what we all know as good raised floor areas to closets that most likely shouldn't be used for servers at all. Of course it doesn't say it like that but we want the best spaces evaluated along with the worst to be sure we have the proper picture.

I'm not sure if I've said this publicly but I truly believe this is one of the single most important projects that will shape the future of IT at Penn State. If I can speculate on the results, and subsequent building projects, this will allow us to be more flexible, responsive, and collaborative than ever before.

I have many thoughts, aside from the money it will take to make this come true. Stay tuned!