High-Performance Computing
High-Performance Happy
- By Charlene O’Hanlon
- 04/01/07
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.