Research Computing Working Group

Brainstorming session with Ken

Core Issues

• High Performance Computing and Networking

• Information Lifecycle

• Federal strategy

• Campus strategy

• Virtual communities

Network Infrastructure Today

• Campus Network• High Performance Campus Network• 1GB Minimum Building Connections• 10GB core network• 10 GB connections to national networks• High availability, redundant equipment• Network Operations Center, Technical support and Engineering services

• Regional/Global connections• Internet 2’s Abilene/NewNet Network • BOREAS Network• NLR• OmniPop and the CIC - An aggregation of GigaPoPsAn aggregation of GigaPoPs

Network Infrastructure Today

•Applications• Condor (Computer Science)• Video Over IP• Administrative Computing Applications, e.g., ISIS• Lambda Circuits for Specialized Needs• Access to Remote Instruments, i.e., telescopes, Ice Cube, Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

• General Considerations for Centralized Research Computing Initiatives:

What services could complement existing research computing?What functions would they want to off-load (commodity services)What specialized needs are they looking for?

(will demand reach threshold to justify investment?)

Campus High Performance Computing

GLOW, Condor

Campus Mid-Range Computing

Department and large-lab systems

Campus Desktop, Device and small applications

Campus Core ServicesExisting College, Department, laboratory services

Campus librariesBNMC - training and support services

PTE - faculty and student technical trainingResearch & Sponsored Programs [Graduate School]

21st Century NetworkDoIT data center (platform), backup, disaster planning

Regional and National HPC Resources

Middleware

Middleware

Middleware

Researcher collaboration, research

device/process, and computational service links to/from resources

at other institutions

Funding Issues• NSF shift to campus focus• Internal and external security• ROI / lifecycle management• Sustainability / succession planning• Data management, curation

08/11/2006

Campus background

• 957.7 million in sponsored funding 2004-5

– 2,053 faculty, 1,175 faculty w/ research awards

• 20+ undergraduate research programs

• 75+ programs, centers, institutes

• 40+ special libraries and collections

• 15+ college / department computing services

• ? Laboratories and research facilities

• Many things happening with no coordination, minimal collaboration, no migration support, highly variable management practices and support services

Discussion

• New faculty outreach• Pre-proposal consultation and standardized content• ComETS-style forum• Engage-style incentive funding• BNMC model• Alignment

– DoIT and Libraries– Campus centers (GLOW)– College, department and lab service centers

• Needs and services– HPC v. desktop; – products v. services

Centralized Access to National and local resources

• Researchers need different types of infrastructure but they may be difficult to find. The opportunity is to link researchers and available resources – Teragrid portal

– National supercomputing resources

– Campus computing resources (Glow, IceCube)

– Departmental resources (CAE)

– Labs

– Individual researchers

Provide Infrastructure for preserving research findings

• Reference Sites

• Digital libraries

• Datagrid

• Presentation Sites

• Institutional Repository

• Provide researchers with Database support

Federal strategy

• ROI on startup grants• Data security - an issue with at least some

agencies• Open yet secure infrastructure• Supercomputing resources funded at a

national level• Campus resources expected to fill in the gap • Outreach K12 and R2 institutions

Lessons Learned from other institutions

• Relationships with researchers are key– Understand the institutional goals for research– Engage researchers– Determine IT’s source of value

• Relationships on national level and granting agency direction are very important

• Researchers are usually not asked to pay for core services but are engaged at a governance level– Forge partnerships– Demonstrate an organizational commitment– Remember that it’s all about the research

Support for Applied Research

• Wisc. Ctr. For Ed. Res. (WCER), School of Ed.– Positioned to lead in information models for education

information

– Possible joint appointment with DoIT to help architect this work

– There are significant additional funding possibilities

– Contact: Chris Thorn

• Initial Feelers from U. Toronto’s Adaptive Technology Research Centre for possible joint grant-supported research/development

Initial steps with Condor Project

• UW-Madison has a Center for High Throughput Computing

• Possible first steps to build relations between DoIT and this center

•Consider Miron Livny's invitation to discuss bringing the DoIT managed student infolab machines into the Condor pool (existing high throughput facility)

•Other campuses have done this, but UW-Madison, the home of Condor, has not

•This option has been explored in the past, but follow-through has been spotty

Identity and access managementfor research community

• Campus identity and access management middleware has a role in research

• Involves scaling up the user community for grid-style computing

• Traditional grid AuthNZ methods are labor intensive, suitable to modest-sized project teams

• If we want “campus grids,” we need to integrate grid and campus middleware

• We need shibboleth in production to play

• GridShib project as one emerging approach

• European Grid for E-Science met in Madison last week, DoIT presented these concepts

Virtual Organization supportfor research community

• In addition, an array of infrastructure services are needed for “Virtual Organizations,” VOs

• VOs are organized around a research project

• They need to manage access to resources (computing power, instruments, data storage) for members of the VO

• Campus could host VO services (e.g., myVOCS from U Alabama Birmingham)

• Also, Grid workflow (jobs that spawn other jobs across the Grid): DoIT staff are positioned to be pioneers

• Sakai

Collaboration with Library

• A proposed new My UW-Madison Researcher View

• Researcher Pages within the MINDS@UW institutional repository

• Linking research papers to the research datasets upon which they were based

• Expand the UW Digital Collections housed at the General Library system

• Create an over-arching search interface to all library research resources

• Custom research-oriented applications, including Library and Museum applications

Next Steps - Organizational

• Engage other DoIT groups• Engage campus

– Meet with Graduate School and other large stake holders

– Informal conversations with selected researchers and their IT staff

– Identify stakeholders and pull them into the working group for governance

• Provide formal organizational structure (Service team etc.)