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High-Performance Computing
High-Performance Happy
4/1/2007
More and more universities are now centralizing their high-performance computing resources — benefiting not only IT departments, but the researchers, too.
Traditionally, the high-performance computing systems used to conduct
research at universities have amounted to silos of technology
scattered across the campus and falling under the purview of the
researchers themselves. But a growing number of universities are
now taking over the management of those systems and creating central
HPC environments—a move that is returning benefits in time,
money, and resources for both the university and its researchers.
Henry Neeman, director of the University of Oklahoma Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER), puts it plainly: “I’ve been seeing a growing trend in centralized HPC for two reasons: capability and practicality.” He explains, “When it comes to capability, you have to consider: What is the largest job you can run on a given machine? There are particular large jobs you can’t run on a system that doesn’t have a lot of capability. And there are the practicalities regarding cooling, space, power, and labor. If you have dozens of systems dedicated to HPC, you can’t just stick them in the closet anymore.”
Notably, the movement of cyberinfrastructure to central management (which includes high-performance computing, computer clusters, and the underlying network), has been gathering speed as more universities are making research a vital part of their institutional identity. On point, the July 2006 report IT Engagement in Research, issued by the Educause Center for Applied Research, highlights the importance that some universities are placing on research. “Many universities have made public bets that they will break into the top echelons of research institutions, and this has set off an arms race to find new sources of funding, to construct new research centers, and to attract star researchers with proven grant-magnet abilities,” the study maintains.
As part of that drive to compete on a research level, many universities are seeking to attach themselves to regional and national research initiatives such as the Texas Internet Grid for Research and Education (TIGRE) and the National LambdaRail project. Having central management of the university’s cyberinfrastructure helps facilitate such pairings by pooling resources and creating a massive computing environment that wouldn’t be as impressive— or useful—as separate clusters distributed throughout the campus. In addition, central management provides constant monitoring and upkeep that a smaller, privately owned cluster might not enjoy.
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