Workstation maintenance technician Joe Jensen with EM contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) installs equipment in a new Hanford Site data center.
Workstation maintenance technician Joe Jensen with EM contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) installs equipment in a new Hanford Site data center.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA) recently closed the doors on an aging data center at the Hanford Site, saving EM more than $100,000 a year.

Working with area public utility districts (PUD) and a telecommunications company, MSA moved out of the 4,800-square-foot data center and into a 480-square-foot room in a Franklin County PUD facility with space allocated specifically for Hanford.

Data centers are designed to store computer networks providing the necessary support for systems to operate reliably. Franklin County PUD is an ideal partner because its facility has the necessary power and cooling systems with backup capabilities to ensure the ongoing delivery of power in case of an outage, as well as an onsite generator. Additionally, it has been retrofitted to protect the equipment during an earthquake. Northwest Open Access Network provides the telecommunication services.

“With changing technology, we were able to downsize the amount of equipment we need and move out of a building that was too big,” said Dennis Rains, MSA project manager. “We purchased more efficient equipment that allows us to increase the network bandwidth, improve cybersecurity, and increase the amount of electronic storage space.”

As the site’s service provider, MSA manages Hanford’s computer network, which includes a primary and backup data center. Before the move, the primary and backup data centers were both located in federal facilities. With this change, MSA moved its backup data center into the facility owned and operated by the Franklin County PUD.

“Not only did we avoid an upgrade of $750,000, but we’re reducing our data center operating costs by up to a million dollars over the next ten years. Each organization made a unique contribution to this project to make it successful,” said Mike Eddy, the information technology infrastructure manager at Hanford.

“This was a big project that had a lot of moving parts,” said Ben Ellison, Hanford’s chief information officer. “As a part of the move, we closed down an aging data center, facilitated a planned site-wide network outage, rebuilt and reconfigured the entire Hanford network, and moved the data center into a brand new facility.”