The slides for my talk on "HPC as a service" at the 25th anniversary Machine Evaluation Workshop in December 2014. I cover Jisc's HPC brokerage and related initiatives including our shared data centre, industry connectivity to Janet, our VAT cost sharing group, and our pilot of the Kit-Catalogue equipment sharing database.

1. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Photo credit: Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy

2. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
1. About Jisc
2. Efficiency agenda
3. HPC brokerage
4. Where next?
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Image credit: Courtesy of EPSRC

3. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
1. About Jisc
2. Efficiency agenda
3. HPC brokerage
4. Where next?
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Image credit: Courtesy of EPSRC

4. :: About Jisc :: What we do
» Registered charity championing the use of digital technologies in
research and education
» Range of shared services for UK Universities and Colleges, e.g.
- Janet, world leading research network
- eduroam global wireless roaming
- Groundbreaking content deals with publishers
- Cloud brokerage with Amazon, Google, Microsoft
» Aiming to complement RCUK and Innovate UK / Catapults
- Open Educational Resources, Open Access and Open Data
- Just launched asset sharing initiative

5. :: About Jisc :: What we do
» Registered charity championing the use of digital technologies in
research and education
» Range of shared services for UK Universities and Colleges, e.g.
- Janet, world leading research network
- eduroam global wireless roaming
- Groundbreaking content deals with publishers
- Cloud brokerage with Amazon, Google, Microsoft
» Aiming to complement RCUK and Innovate UK / Catapults
- Open Educational Resources, Open Access and Open Data
- Just launched asset sharing initiative

6. :: About Jisc :: What we do
» Registered charity championing the use of digital technologies in
research and education
» Range of shared services for UK Universities and Colleges, e.g.
- Janet, world leading research network
- eduroam global wireless roaming
- Groundbreaking content deals with publishers
- Cloud brokerage with Amazon, Google, Microsoft
» Aiming to complement RCUK and Innovate UK / Catapults
- Open Educational Resources, Open Access and Open Data
- Just launched asset sharing initiative

7. :: About Jisc :: The Janet network

8. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
1. About Jisc
2. Efficiency agenda
3. HPC brokerage
4. Where next?
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Image credit: Courtesy of EPSRC

9. :: Efficiency Agenda :: Shared Data Centre
Anchor tenants:
- Francis Crick Institute
- King’s College
- LSE
- QMUL
- Sanger Institute
- UCL
More at:
www.ja.net/cloud

10. :: Efficiency Agenda :: Cloud Brokerage
National deals for e.g.
- Arkivum
- Box
- Dropbox
- Google Apps
- Office 365
More at:
www.ja.net/cloud

11. :: Efficiency Agenda :: ESISS
Infosec advice:
- Pen testing
- Reporting for audit
compliance
- Security consultancy
- Led by Tiger Team
accredited Senior
Security Tester
More at: goo.gl/6Jz5I7

12. :: Efficiency Agenda :: Cost Sharing Group
Largest VAT cost
sharing group in UK:
93% of HEIs
256 institutions
participating

13. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
1. About Jisc
2. Efficiency agenda
3. HPC brokerage
4. Where next?
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Image credit: Courtesy of EPSRC

14. :: HPC Brokerage :: Service Providers
Image credit: CC BY-NC-ND HPC Midlands
» £60m public investment in HPC
See www.jisc.ac.uk/research/projects/equipment-sharing

15. :: HPC Brokerage :: The Rationale
» Reduce friction of sharing between institutions & with industry
– “Pay as you go” model, no upfront capital costs
– Makes HPC accessible to those who could not previously
contemplate it
» How does it work?
– Standardized terms and conditions including information
assurance, intellectual property, termination etc
– Trialling this approach initially with HPC brokerage

16. :: HPC Brokerage :: The Jisc Agreement

17. :: HPC Brokerage :: Equipment sharing
» Kit-Catalogue equipment sharing database “as a service”
» Kit-Catalogue feeds into EPSRC’s
› 10,000 items of equipment available for sharing
See www.jisc.ac.uk/research/projects/equipment-sharing

18. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
1. About Jisc
2. Efficiency agenda
3. HPC brokerage
4. Where next?
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Image credit: Courtesy of EPSRC

19. :: Where next? :: Sweating the assets
» Leveraging public investment in the Janet network
– Connecting industry: www.ja.net/janet-reach
– Where next - e.g. 10Gbit/s links to Science Parks?
– Testbeds for new technologies, e.g. UHD streaming from Tokyo
Olympics, Surrey 5G testbed, Catapult centres
» Where else can we add value?
– Exploit cost sharing group (256 institutions, 93% of HEIs)
– Support for research clusters that want to share services
– Anticipating “Austerity 2.0” efficiency savings

20. Frictionless Supercomputing
MEW25 / HPC in Industry, December 2014
Martin Hamilton martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
Futurist @martin_hamilton
Photo credit: Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy