UBIT, SEAS work to avoid tech disruption during One World Café construction

UBIT is partnering with the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering to ensure there is minimal disruption to technology services during construction of One World Café.

A series of tests were recently conducted in UB’s Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory, which employees involved in the testing jokingly referred to as “Operation Shake and Bake.”

The tests simulated vibrations and shocks from demolition work, like jack hammering, by shaking the server on a vibrating platform at various frequencies, amplitudes and acceleration. The tests were repeated three times: side to side, front to back, and up and down.

“These tests will evaluate whether we have to take any measures to lower these vibrations [before One World Café construction begins],” explains Andreas Stavridis associate professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, and faculty lead for the server testing project.

Larry Schnitzer, director of UBIT’s Enterprise Infrastructure Services, says a server was mounted in a test rack similar to the racks UBIT uses in its data center. “The goal here is to as closely as possible make the test environment representative of the environment in the data center,” he says.

The server stood up to vibrations much larger than those expected from construction before exhibiting any noticeable performance issues. No failures were recorded, even at vibrations up to six times larger than expected.

“Although it wasn’t possible to test with every kind of server, we think the tests give a strong indication that physical vibration and shock is unlikely to be an issue,” Schnitzer says.