Data Center Partner Selection

1
Data Center Partner Selection

• Town Hall Discussions
• 31 January 2007
• Al Kellie
• Tim Killeen
• Krista Laursen
• Jeff Reaves

2
NCARs Fundamental Responsibility

• Provide the greatest possible computational
  capability to the national community, at the
  lowest possible cost, with realistic options for
  further expansions
• The faster we add capability, the greater the
  scientific benefits we provide

The Wyoming offer provides more computing,
sooner, and at lower cost
3
Path to the Partnership

• Exploration of several options to secure a new
  facility (including leasing space, re-fitting an
  existing data center, pursuing new construction)
  initiated by a team of NCAR and UCAR personnel
  roughly two years ago
• New construction with the involvement of a
  partner identified as the most viable and cost
  effective option discussions initiated with a
  variety of potential Front Range partners (CSU,
  CSM, IBM, CU, and Wyoming)
• NSF, a Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP), and the UCAR
  Board of Trustees (BOT) engaged throughout the
  project discovery phase to ensure appropriate
  community guidance and support for the endeavor
• Project vision broadened approximately one year
  ago to focus not just on the construction of a
  new NCAR supercomputing facility but on the
  development of a larger geosciences
  cyber-collaboratory framework
• With NSF and community support, decision made in
  Fall 2006 to pursue construction of a new NCAR
  supercomputing facility and the development of a
  geosciences cyber-collaboratory in parallel
• Negotiations with two final partner candidates
  (CU and Wyoming) completed in early January

4
Partnership Highlights

• As the facility partner, Wyoming agrees to
• Provide a shovel-ready site in the North Range
  Business Park (Cheyenne LEADS)
• Provide additional required physical
  infrastructure (e.g., site connection to fiber
  optics network)
• Utilize State Treasurer Industrial Revenue Bond
  program for funding of the construction effort
  (community issues bonds, Treasurer purchases
  them, paid off by NCAR)
• Provide necessary electrical infrastructure to
  guarantee transmission level power of 24 MW to
  the facility (Cheyenne Light Fuel and Power)
• Provide 20M from Univ. of Wyoming endowment fund
  for construction
• Provide 1M annually for facility operations
  (Univ. of Wyoming)
• Additional partnerships with Wyoming, CU, CSU,
  CSM, NREL, and others will be explored as part of
  effort to develop a Front Range
  Cyber-Collaboratory
• NCAR is continuing discussions with CU to
  identify a meaningful, founding partnership role
  for CU in the initial build-out of the data
  center and creation of the FRCC

5
Opportunities
Challenges

• Strong NCAR/UCAR ownership land, facility, and
  project management
• Optimization of early science, with significantly
  larger initial computer purchase allowing NCAR to
  return to leadership class computing in 2010
• Significant flexibility Cheyenne site ideally
  suited for straightforward facility expansion in
  the future, 5 initial faculty joint appointments
• Lower cost of construction
• Long-term financial savings, lower annual debt
  service approx. 8M over 20 years
• Unique and transformative partnership

• Lack of proximity to other NCAR facilities
• Impact of moving a major NCAR facility to another
  state
• Requirement for staff relocation
• Complexity of splitting off and moving some
  NCAR/CISL staff to Wyoming and managing personnel
  in two locations
• Increased staffing costs additional staff
  needed and relocation costs
• Fewer options for showcasing the new facility
• Project management complications overseeing
  construction activities in a more removed
  location

6
Facility Basics

• Selected site covers 24 acres in the North Range
  Business Park (see below)
• Modular facility design to be implemented, with
  initial size to be 108,000 sq. ft. with
  15,000-25,000 sq. ft. of raised floor
• Initial power build-out to 8 MW, with 4-5 MW for
  computing and 3-4 MW for cooling

• Facility power to primarily come from clean
  coal
• NCAR is working aggressively to secure the
  provision of wind energy as well
• Design, construction, and operation of the data
  center as a high performance green building will
  be pursued via LEED (Leadership in Energy and
  Environmental Design) certification

7
Next Steps

• Establishment of Data Center Project Office as
  quickly as possible fund in 2007 in order to
  pursue an aggressive project start-up
• Assist Wyoming with preparation and presentation
  of required legislative materials (process
  currently underway)
• Proceed with partnership formalization and NSF
  approval steps (preparation of MOU, NSF approval
  package, etc.)
• Pending approval of funding by Wyoming
  legislature, initiate architecture and
  engineering (design) work

Targeted milestones Construction initiation
(shovels in the ground) Within one
year Facility open for operation Late
2010/early 2011
8
Thank You

• To Lawrence Buja and Peter Fox for leading the
  data center project over the past year
• To the many people who have helped bring about
  this exciting new partnership
• Aaron Andersen, Rick Anthes, Peter Backlund, Tom
  Bettge, Rena Brasher-Alleva, Guy Brasseur, Frank
  Bryan, Lawrence Buja, Peter Fox, Al Kellie,
  Janice Kauvar, Krista Laursen, Rich Loft, Gary
  New, Annick Pouquet, Jeff Reaves, Katy Schmoll,
  Henry Tufo, Olga Wilhelmi, Mike Wiltberger,
  Larry Winter and the many other people
  throughout CISL, NCAR, and UCAR who have
  provided critical support

9
Questions?

• Krista Laursen (krista_at_ucar.edu, x2003) Data
  Center Project Office Director

Please refer inquiries from the media to Krista,
Jeff Reaves (jreaves_at_ucar.edu), or David Hosansky
(UCAR Head of Media Relations, hosansky_at_ucar.edu)