Milton Keynes College sows seeds for a Green future

Milton Keynes College, one of the fastest-growing colleges in the UK, has selected Dell to revamp its IT infrastructure. Through a new networking solution, Dell has worked with the college to deliver high-speed wireless access across the campus and reduce energy usage in the data centre which will significantly cut operational costs by an estimated £60,000 per year.

Increasing Mobility with High-Speed Access
Providing apprenticeships, professional qualifications and commercial training to more than 20,000 students, Milton Keynes College has established a reputation for leveraging technology to drive innovation in education. In response to the growing number of mobile devices brought by students, the College realised it needed to implement a BYOD strategy to provide the network access they needed. The College decided to deploy a wireless network that could provide high-speed access to academic resources from mobile platforms and chose to replace its existing Cisco infrastructure with Dell Networking MXL 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches, Dell Networking Z9000 switches, Dell Networking 5548 switches and Dell Networking 8100 switches (since re-named Dell Networking N4000 switches). The new networking switches have provided faster access speeds and increased bandwidth to support concurrent student engagement across wired and mobile devices.

Answering the Green Demand
With strict government targets for carbon emissions, Milton Keynes College also needed to reduce the amount of money spent on energy by introducing greener data centre solutions. With this in mind, the College deployed Dell PowerEdge M620 blade servers with Intel® Xeon® processors and cooling infrastructure to create a high-performing, energy efficient data centre.

“Thanks to the networking redesign with Dell we are able to provide an improved service to our students and we’re already receiving positive feedback. Our new data centre significantly reduces energy consumption and the associated costs, freeing up funds for investment in other projects”, said Dr Daniel Hidlebaugh, director of IT Development and Emerging Technologies, Milton Keynes College. “We now have plans to similarly upgrade our infrastructure at our other two campuses, working alongside Dell to replicate our success across the whole organisation.”

The College’s newly redesigned server rooms decrease its carbon footprint by using ambient air from outside in a hot aisle/cool aisle design, allowing its four central air-conditioning units to be replaced with a single unit on standby. The hot air produced is extracted from the server rooms and circulated into the College’s reception area, providing heating for the public space. The College also plans to expand this solution in the future by using the rest of the heat produced by the data centre to warm the College’s water.

“We’re acutely aware that academic institutions across the UK are facing challenges in the provision of IT to students and staff, with a growing demand for access to course materials online, both through wired and wireless devices”, said Ken Harley, Director, Education, Dell UK. “By working with Milton Keynes College to develop a bespoke solution, we are helping them to address these challenges whilst creating a truly energy-efficient solution that will support student learning and save the College a significant amount of money in the future.”