Technology Operations Center (TOC) Project
The Technology Operations Center (TOC) is a new, state-of-the-art data center facility being constructed for VCU located at 707 W. Broad St. This new building is a replacement for our resident data center located at the Pocahontas building at 900 E. Main St.
Why are we migrating?
In April of 2021 the Commonwealth of Virginia informed VCU that the Pocahontas building was to be demolished in order to construct a new Federal Court building on that site. This prompted VCU to launch a project to move the current data center from the Pocahontas building to a new location on campus, located near the corner of Belvidere and Broad Streets.
When will the new data center be live?
The Planning and Design Phase of the project is complete and construction is finishing up on the TOC building to house the new data center. Installation of network and data center infrastructure is underway, and migration of capabilities to the new data center is to begin early Spring 2024 and expected to be completed by Summer 2024.
What services will be affected during the data center migration?
All of the services in our Service Catalog may be impacted to some degree during the migration. Even systems that are hosted in the cloud may have a dependency for something that is on-premises. Service owners will be communicated with during the migration to allow for planning of service outages and prevent any unexpected downtimes.
During the months of January - April, and July - August, major network infrastructure changes will take place which could impact internet access to various locations on Monroe Park and MCV Campus locations. Work will be primarily done after hours to prevent impact on campus locations during peak daytime hours.
Who is working on the project?
A Technology Services project team, led by Infrastructure Services, has been tasked to oversee the planning and implementation of all tasks necessary to relocate network and data center technology, including servers and other hardware, cabling, switches, telecommunication equipment, etc. to the new location. The project team also includes representatives from other Technology Services groups such as Telecommunications Services, data and application owners across IT at VCU, etc.