Are colocation data centers the right partner for universities to meet their sustainability goals?

As a new academic year begins, higher education in the United Kingdom is facing funding pressures. Frozen domestic fee caps, rising operational costs and potential decreases in international student fees are putting universities under significant budgeting constraints. According to the Office for Students, 40% of higher education providers in England were projected to operate at a deficit by the end of last term, a concerning trend that underscores the sector's financial vulnerability.

At the same time many universities are turning to artificial intelligence to support groundbreaking research across healthcare, environmental science, cybersecurity and more. Budget constraints are impacting essential infrastructure upgrades and equipment renewals required for their high-performance computing infrastructure. IT departments are being forced to stretch their existing resources, some of which have been in use for over a decade, and in some cases look for alternative sources of compute. 

Colocation data centers can help. These facilities rent space to businesses, universities and other organisations to house servers and IT infrastructure and provide power, cooling, security, and connectivity. They can be an effective and sustainable solution for universities challenged with managing their growing IT infrastructure needs. 

One advantage colocation data centers can offer is an alignment to a university’s sustainability goals. Universities are increasingly committed to reducing their carbon footprints and promoting sustainable practices. In 2023, the QS Sustainability Rankings were launched to measure a higher education institution's ability to tackle environmental, social and governance challenges highlighting the importance of this issue. Colocation data center providers can contribute to these efforts by offering efficient energy management and cooling solutions, like liquid cooling, that significantly reduce the environmental impact compared to traditional on-campus data centers.

Colocation also offers universities flexible options for managing their IT workloads. Depending on workload demands, universities can take advantage of “compute as a service” types of models where the compute infrastructure is owned and managed by a colocation provider and the university pays for the service as needed. This allows universities to cost-effectively scale their computing power without the upfront investment in hardware, something particularly attractive when institutions are faced with budget constraints.

Universities can also opt to host their own infrastructure within a colocation facility. This gives them more control over their IT environment while still benefiting from the enhanced power and cooling capabilities of the data center. The operator can allocate dedicated space for university equipment and expand capacity as needed. This flexibility is crucial for universities facing challenges in upgrading their on-campus labs due to financial or logistical constraints as they can maintain their research and educational activities without costly upgrades to their own facilities.

Colocation data centers can be a versatile and sustainable solution for universities looking to enhance their IT capabilities. Universities can benefit from the advanced infrastructure, like liquid cooling, and sustainability features offered by these facilities. As universities continue to navigate budgetary pressures and the need for sustainable growth, colocation data centers will play an increasingly important role in supporting their mission to advance education and research in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner.