High-Performance Computing and Grid Computing

Providing an evolving foundation for 21st-century research and education, cyberinfrastructure is both a focus for invention and an accelerator of innovation, linked through a trajectory that begins with design and evolves to broad-based use.

Do you already have a grid-computing deployment on campus? Or do you have researchers who need to access grid-computing resources from high-performance computing centers around the globe? In this session, you will find out how to configure your CA to issue International Grid Trust Federation (IGTF)-compliant certificates and join over a hundred CAs currently certified under approved IGTF profiles. Hear real-life experiences from SURAgrid, see bridge PKIs in action, and learn how to leverage your campus PKI infrastructure to facilitate access to worldwide grid-computing efforts.

Modern cyberinfrastructure (CI) creates a “distributed computer” with resources dispersed in diverse geographic and administrative domains and the network providing the “backplane” for this computer. This session will present major players in research and education CI and will offer an overview of the CI Days program under way to assist campuses in planning and implementing CI.

The CI Days program is being developed in coordination with EDUCAUSE, Internet2, National LambdaRail (NLR), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Energy (DOE). The NSF’s TeraGrid and the DOE’s Open Science Grid build on advanced networking to provide leading-edge collaborative computing infrastructure, Internet2 and NLR provide the enhanced network backplane infrastructure, and the NSF’s International Research Network Connections program offers international extensions. Internet2 also develops middleware tools to enable end users to reliably access CI resources, and EDUCAUSE addresses policy and funding issues involved with implementing and operating CI.

Cyberinfrastructure is revolutionizing the scientific-research landscape and is positioned to similarly revolutionize learning. The challenge for educators is to find an innovative strategy that incorporates the best of traditional pedagogy with new paradigms that reflect our times. This presentation outlines how computation, visualization, storage, and high-speed networks can create novel learning environments.

This case study depicts the formation, characteristics, and organizational success factors of Georgetown University's Advanced Research Computing (ARC) division. In collaboration with university researchers, ARC provides a range of services from computational support to multi-layered, multi-institutional support for research. A companion to ECAR's 2006 research study, IT Engagement in Research: A Baseline Study, this case study describes how Georgetown created a unique, collaborative, shared-cost IT division specifically for university researchers that now provides a secure environment for computational equipment and increases Georgetown's grant and fundraising competitiveness.