GPN & ARE-ON Joint Conference 2026

Higher-education data centers are expected to support increasingly demanding workloads while operating within tight budget, staffing, and infrastructure constraints. At the same time, universities depend on their data centers to deliver always-on services that support teaching, research, and core institutional operations, making reliability and operational stability mission-critical. Clearly understanding and addressing key pain points is essential to sustaining these environments over time.

In this session, we will explore the most common data center fabric challenges facing higher-education institutions today and discuss practical ways to mitigate them. Rather than focusing on specific technologies or architectures, this session highlights the core considerations universities should keep in mind when planning for a more resilient and efficient data center fabric.