ERDF 064: Construction and Equipping of University Computing Services Centre Building

The project has built and equipped a facility that will house a state-of-the- art IT educational facilities for use by students as well as to incorporate core IT infrastructure and equipment that served all University. The building houses a data centre and related infrastructure as well as computer laboratories, training rooms and video conferencing facilities amongst others.

This project will enable the University to upgrade its ICT infrastructure and deliver state-of-the-art IT facilities and technology-rich and more inclusive learning spaces for its staff and students

The new IT Services(formerly Computing Services Centre - CSC) building will include a miinimum area of 100 square metres that will cater for all University's data centre needs. The data Centre will be built to international standards to host servers and other IT equipment that aare required by the University. This will have adequate infrastructure and backup facilities complete with sufficient resilence, physical security and access control. Servers currently located in offices and around campus will be relocated and provisioned through the central data centre and this would also facilitate use of server virtualization in order to maximise use o f resources. It will also be bale to host higher capacity routers and networking equipment that will be able to service the increased bandwith required by the University. Online electronic services including eSIMS, Finance & HR and other administrative systems, e-learning platforms and document archive, amongst other services, will clearly benefit from being hosted in a proper data centre. Furthermore, the new facility will also enable the University to take a more action role in various research projects.The new IT Services building will include a dedicated videoconfernecing hall with a seating capacity of a minimum of 50 people. furthermore, the new building will provide an area for the hosting of high-tech equipment such as large format displays and other presentation equipment in order to create an interactive environment. This will also aid e-learning initiatives such as 'e-lectures on demand' facilities. The new building will have four computer-equipped labs for lecturing purposes, hosting an average of 25 students each. moreover, more than 200 students will be able to separately and concurrently make use of IT access facilities from within the IT Services building through a combination of wifi and dedicated open access PCs. This will also include an area for students requiring to work in small groups . Students will be also able to use centrally manged and licensed applications on their personal laptop, currently only available from open access PCs thus furtehr increasing capcity. all areas will ahve acess to a specialised large format printing facility hosted within the building itself. we envisage that there will no longer be the need of any time restrictions once the building is in the service.

Increase capacity and quality of ICT facilities such as open access workstation, PC-equipped training rooms, videoconference facilities. Provide adequate space for IT support services. Provide adequate data centre and network operations centre. Provide an increased working space for ICT staff. Provide IT facilities for disabled persons. Enable further development in IT initiatives such as e-learning.