NEW ERA OF RESEARCH COMPUTING
CCT and ITS team up to optimize access to resources and user support, while minimizing costs

To significantly improve user support and advance research on campus, the LSU Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) and LSU Information Technology Services (ITS) have formed a partnership to optimize research and high-performance computing (HPC).

As part of the partnership, the two organizations have launched a Web site, www.hpc.lsu.edu, to give researchers a central gateway to the supercomputing resources of LSU. Large computing machines including Pelican, Santaka, SuperMike, Nemeaux, and SuperHelix, will be available to researchers at the click of a mouse via an online application.

“We’re making a fresh start and doing things differently in HPC,” says LSU Chief Information Officer Brian Voss. “Information technology-enabled research is key to both our organizations’ strategic efforts to advance the University’s research mission, which will lead to a better environment for learning, research and discovery.”

CCT and ITS will focus on different aspects of the role HPC will play in research. CCT will work with faculty to develop innovative ways to use computing to advance their individual disciplines as well as interdisciplinary projects. ITS will concentrate on the management of LSU's HPC infrastructure, which includes computers, storage, and high-speed networking, and provide quality support and training to users.

“By focusing on what we think each of our organizations is meant to do and by joining forces, we’ve got a very good foundation to build the kinds of computing services and support that people need,” says CCT Director Edward Seidel. “Our vision is to create a merged environment where we each focus on customer service, but the services from each organization will be different.”

The new HPC organization and Web site will streamline access for LSU faculty to more than 13 million hours of computing time per year and a nearly nine Teraflops capacity on the six computational systems available in the HPC group. The partnership sheds the traditional model that most universities use today to deliver high-performance computing. Instead of having separate administrative and research computing groups, CCT and ITS have broken the mold by taking advantage of the logical crossover of skill sets among technology researchers and staff. Using a collaborative approach and combining staff allows the organizations to combine investment strategies and leverage their purchasing power towards the acquisition of future machines and expertise at LSU.

CCT and ITS continue to make plans for further improvements to have the most effective impact on research computing at LSU and fulfill their goal of becoming one of the premier HPC collaborations in the country. Already, the partnership staff is playing a leading role in deploying the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative supercomputers across the state as well as working with the Southeastern Universities Research Association on initiatives to develop HPC resources. This collaboration and its associated projects keep Louisiana in a position of national leadership for deploying the most advanced, high-tech infrastructure.

ON THE WEB:
LSU Center for Computation and Technology
LSU Information Technology Services

from Summer 2006 Issue