NC State-IBM Virtual Computing Project Bearing Fruit

  • By Paul McCloskey
  • 05/15/07
North Carolina State University said a partnership it formed seven months ago with IBM Corp. to offer unused computer cycles via the Internet to higher ed and K-12 institutions for learning and research projects is starting to bear fruit.

The Virtual Computing Lab, on open-architecture project that delivers computing resources on demand through the Internet, has given needed computing resources to about 30,000 students and faculty, according to the partners, which include NC State's Information Technology Division, the College of Engineering, the Friday Institute, and IBM.

Clients of the project include University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Duke University, UNC-Greensboro (UNC-G), East Carolina University (ECU), Western Carolina University, and Appalachian State University (ASU).

VCL has also partnered with North Carolina school districts in Granville, Franklin, Halifax, and Northampton counties to help shape a K-12 VCL to provide Internet access for rural and underserved schools.

The VCL is also supporting several open-source community projects at North Carolina universities. The research projects will address a technical issues related to the VCL infrastructure, including performance, availability, security, governance, and provisioning.

The platform independence of the VCL enables a broad mix of applications, according to VCL officials. In addition, the 24/7 availability of the VCL allows students to access computing resources throughout the night, often when learning labs are closed. Distance education students also value, and benefit from, the anywhere, anytime availability of the VCL.

Read More:

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

Featured

  • Hand holding a stylus over a tablet with futuristic risk management icons

    Why Universities Are Ransomware's Easy Target: Lessons from the 23% Surge

    Academic environments face heightened risk because their collaboration-driven environments are inherently open, making them more susceptible to attack, while the high-value research data they hold makes them an especially attractive target. The question is not if this data will be targeted, but whether universities can defend it swiftly enough against increasingly AI-powered threats.

  • interconnected blocks of data

    Rubrik Intros Immutable Backup for Okta Environments

    Rubrik has announced Okta Recovery, extending its identity resilience platform to Okta with immutable backups and in-place recovery, while separately detailing its integration with Okta Identity Threat Protection for automated remediation.

  • teenager’s study desk with a laptop displaying an AI symbol, surrounded by books, headphones, a notebook, and a cup of colorful pencils

    Survey: Student AI Use on the Rise

    Ninety-three percent of students across the United States have used AI at least once or twice for school-related purposes, according to the latest AI in Education report from Microsoft.

  • cybersecurity book with a shield and padlock

    NIST Proposes New Cybersecurity Guidelines for AI Systems

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology has unveiled plans to issue a new set of cybersecurity guidelines aimed at safeguarding artificial intelligence systems, citing rising concerns over risks tied to generative models, predictive analytics, and autonomous agents.