The Problem

Student success is BSU's overarching priority. Providing a technically rich academic environment and achieving cost efficiency in IT practices are directly linked to that success. For a state university, every dollar counts. BSU was in a unique position to enhance efficiency as it held its own dark fiber running from its main campus in Bridgewater, following the MBTA tracks into Boston. For several years, this resource lay dormant, coiled up in a vent shaft outside the Prudential Center in Boston's Back Bay.

"We knew our dark fiber was a tremendous asset, but we also knew that leveraging it required a technical partner with a unique, all-encompassing approach that could help us achieve our goals," said BSU's VP of Information Technology and CIO, Steven Zuromski.

BSU also faced challenges with its aging on-campus data centers. For example, its primary data center was on the ground floor with overhead HVAC pipes, as risk of condensation and water leaks that caused concerns and costly investment to mitigate that risk.

The Solution

Through professional networking events in the Boston area, Zuromski was familiar with Markley Group and its world-class multi-tenant, mission-critical telecommunications and data center facility. "With our dark fiber running into Boston adjacent to Markley, we made it our goal to pull it into our own cabinet at Markley," said Zuromski. "We knew that if we could enable our own transport to Markley, we could dramatically save on our Internet costs and mitigate unnecessary risk in our IT operations by vacating our aging data centers."

The process of pulling BSU's dark fiber into Markley was no standard project. Not only was the technical implementation unique, but also, as a state entity, BSU needed to navigate the complexities of a single source procurement in lockstep with Markley to ensure compliance. Zuromski stated, "From the beginning, Dave Delutis, BSU's Director of Networking, and I worked with Markley's Mark Sullivan, who showed us all the possibilities in completing the project, providing fully customized service at every step."

A challenging task was locating BSU's fiber along the MBTA tracks. With no available documentation, the team worked with the MBTA to physically climb through dust-filled tracks to locate fiber date codes, calculate length markings, and trace them to the appropriate locations. From there, the fiber was spliced from the MBTA's Park Street station and transitioned across multiple rail lines. Markley's Bill McLean coordinated routing the fiber within the Markley facility, and collectively, they worked to achieve the entirety of the project's goals.

The Results

With fiber directly into Markley, BSU is now afforded the ability to choose its Internet Service Provider (ISP) from across the Markley Network, an ecosystem of over 100 telecom carriers. With dedicated, redundant 2Gbit fiber connections coming back to campus, network performance is optimized, latency reduced, and the university's annual Internet access costs cut by more than 50%.

Plus, BSU has achieved further Internet savings by peering on the Boston Internet Exchange, also located at Markley. BOSIX provides members a unique IP peering network. As an open switching fabric, it bypasses the Internet and intermediary ISPs, directly connecting BSU to a variety of technology vendors.

Lastly, BSU has started moving its on-premise systems to Markley, recently installing a production standby of its ERP system. This system is employed as their live disaster recovery environment as well as for test and development. With Markley colocation services providing reliable backup generators, uninterruptible power and cooling, and in-house staff to help maintain their environment, the results have reconfirmed Markley's role in BSU's data center strategy. BSU's next step - to relocate all of its hyperconverged infrastructure to Markley in the coming year.

Conclusion

By reducing IT costs and making the IT infrastructure more reliable, BSU is strengthening the academic computing environment and IT services that all their members rely on. Higher quality services lead to higher quality academic experiences for greater student success. "We recognize Markley as a key strategic partner in our vision of our IT future," stated Zuromski. "By tying directly into the networking fabric of New England at Markley, we have opened ourselves up for many new opportunities. The high bandwidth connectivity and data center footprint we have achieved at Markley figures directly into our long term data center plans, disaster recovery strategies, and our growing interconnectivity with academic centers throughout Massachusetts and beyond."