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12.01.04 Above, one of the new servers donated by Bank of America Bank of America donates servers to Erskine College A donation by the Bank of America to Erskine College and Seminary will allow the information technology department to upgrade and expand its services. The gift of 19 servers and a printer came about as a result of a chance meeting between Bobby Clarke, the college's director of information technology, and Jeff Lovvorn during parent orientation in August. Lovvorn, whose son Chris entered Erskine as a freshman this fall, works in information technology for Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C. "He introduced himself to me and asked if we were interested in surplus equipment," Clarke said. "I told him that we would be — we get offers from time to time, but we don't always hear anything." Clarke did hear several weeks later from Lovvorn, who e-mailed and said Bank of America might have between 10 and 15 servers available if Erskine was interested in having them. Clarke and Michael Armstrong, associate director of information technology, went to Charlotte Oct. 5 to pick up the servers. It turned out to be 19 servers — 18 of which are exactly alike and a larger, more powerful server, plus a printer. The equipment isn't ready for the scrap heap, either, according to Clarke. "We got machines that have a good bit of life left in them," he said. Clarke said the servers, most of which are the Dell PowerEdge 2450 model, are "newer and more powerful" than many of Erskine's current production servers. Some of the new donated servers will be placed in Reid Science Hall for production and backup for Belk Hall, the primary administrative building on campus, in case of an emergency. The department also plans to begin replacing some of the college's older and less capable servers with the newer ones, Clarke said. He said information technology would also be able to expand its services with the donated servers. With the additional servers, the college will be able to split the Erskine Web site onto different servers, making it easier to make changes to the Web site without shutting down the whole site. Such a move will also allow the site to load faster. Clarke estimated the actual cash market value of the donation at $30,000. He also said it will save the college from having to make one purchase this year. "It will translate into real savings for the college," Clarke said. He said it will take some time to get all the servers in production, but one of the servers is already in operation and another one will be by the end of December. "This will allow us to spread the services we provide over a greater number of servers," Clarke said. "It will make less susceptible to failures and major problems." |
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