UCC president John O'Halloran and Dell Technologies president of international markets Aongus Hegarty. Image: David Jones
UCC claims the upgrade to Dell PowerEdge servers has reduced its annual greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 70pc and cut power usage by more than 50pc.
Dell Technologies has teamed up with University College Cork (UCC) to help the university become carbon neutral.
The university has retained its standing as a ‘green campus’ for years, successfully renewing its Green Flag status four times for its environmental efforts. In 2021, UCC was ranked 8th in the world when it comes to sustainability.
To boost its sustainability goals further, UCC has turned to Dell to upgrade its IT systems and reduce their energy consumption.
UCC recently launched a five-year strategic plan, with a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040. But the university said it had outdated IT infrastructure and minimal data storage capacity, limiting its ability to reduce its emissions.
By upgrading to Dell PowerEdge servers, UCC claims its annual greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by nearly 70pc year-on-year while reducing power usage by more than 50pc.
The university said this helps accomplish it goals of providing a high-quality and flexible digital experience for its 25,000 students and 3,500 staff.
UCC IT director Gerard Cully said the new servers have created “modern, resilient storage and compute solutions” and have achieved “incredible results” in reducing the university’s carbon footprint.
“We’ve completely modernised our IT infrastructure so that we can deliver more flexible, sustainable, secure and resilient digital services and solutions to our staff and students for years to come,” Cully said.
Jason Ward, the VP and MD of Dell Technologies Ireland, said UCC reached out for “modern digital infrastructure” and noted that remote and hybrid learning is “now the reality for most third level institutions”.
“We are determined to meet the needs of today without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations,” Ward said. “By harnessing the power of modern storage solutions, we are able to support the university as it continues to thrive as an innovative, competitive and sustainable research-led hub.”
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