Client & Project Overview
NUI Galway is a third-level teaching and research institution with a large and diverse campus footprint across Galway city. Many of its buildings and supporting infrastructure have been in continuous use for decades and play a critical role in delivering teaching, research, and administrative services to students and staff. Central to this infrastructure are the university’s IT systems, including data centres that support learning platforms, research activity, and day-to-day operations.
To support continued growth and future resilience, NUI Galway engaged PEMCAS to review its existing IT infrastructure, with a particular focus on data-centre facilities. Energy efficiency was a key driver for the study, reflecting the university’s wider sustainability ambitions. Equally important was the need to maintain uninterrupted IT system uptime throughout any assessment or subsequent works, recognising that outages would have immediate impacts across multiple faculties and services.
PEMCAS carried out a detailed on-site survey of the existing data-centre environments, combining physical inspections with thermal analysis to fully understand current performance, constraints, and risks. The review assessed cooling strategies, equipment layout, redundancy, and operational limitations, with a focus on identifying opportunities to improve efficiency while maintaining system reliability.
Based on this analysis, PEMCAS developed practical recommendations for optimising the existing infrastructure and planning for future expansion. The resulting report was used by the university to support internal stakeholder engagement and strategic decision-making. Capital funding was subsequently approved, followed by a public procurement process and the commencement of implementation works, all structured to minimise disruption within a live campus environment.
Key Insights
In a university setting, IT infrastructure must balance performance, resilience, and sustainability while remaining invisible to end users. This project demonstrated the importance of understanding operational realities from the outset and designing solutions that prioritise uptime above all else.
By combining technical analysis with clear communication and phased, low-risk recommendations, PEMCAS enabled NUI Galway to plan energy-efficient upgrades without compromising critical services. The feasibility-led approach supported informed investment decisions and provided a robust foundation for future development, showing how careful planning can deliver sustainable improvements in complex, always-on environments.
