Introducing the Jisc National HPC Framework Agreement

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Martin Hamilton @[email protected] http://martinh.net

Introducing the Jisc National HPC Agreement(Technology Strategy Board E-Infrastructure SIG, August 2014)

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1. Why an HPC Framework?

2. Why Jisc?

3. How will it work?

4. Wider E-InfrastructureOpportunity


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2. Why Jisc?




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E-Infrastructure facilities for High Performance Computing and Big Data are critically important to many branches of academic and industrial R&D.

Given the high capital cost of the equipment involved, many organizations have told us they are interested in:

‑ Sharing the cost of putting new facilities into place.‑ Purchasing access to facilities for “cloudbursting”.‑ Business continuity during maintenance/outages or for

routine ongoing use.

:: Why an HPC Framework? ::

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Jisc agreement developed in collaboration with EPSRC’sHPC Midlands regional Supercomputing Centre of Excellence (http://hpc-midlands.ac.uk)

Market tested via HPC Midlands with a wide range of firms ranging from SMEs to large corporates.

Key issues around protection of intellectual property and information assurance factored in from day one.

:: Why an HPC Framework? :: Origins

http://hpc-midlands.ac.uk/

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2. Why Jisc?




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We are a registered charity championing the use of digital technologies in research and education.

We run a wide range of services for Universities & Colleges, e.g.‑ JANET, world leading NREN.‑ Groundbreaking content deals with publishers.‑ Cloud brokerage.

R&D achievements such as:‑ IETF standards track Moonshot project.‑ Pioneering work in Open Educational Resources,

Open Access and Open Data, preparing the sector for "open by default”.

:: Why Jisc? :: About us

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:: Why Jisc? :: Sector efficiencies

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:: Why Jisc? :: Next gen products/services

Technology and In-frastructure

59%

Futures6%

Content and resources

21%

Customer expe-rience14%

£96m income in 2013/2014,here’s where it goes.

Less R&D (Futures) than you might imagine.

A solution provider,not a funder.

Increasing role of institutional subscriptions.

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:: Why Jisc? :: Brokerage

National agreements for:

‑ Arkivum‑ Box‑ Dropbox‑ Google Apps‑ Office 365

Peerings with major cloud service providers including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

More at:http://goo.gl/sLEbo3

http://goo.gl/sLEbo3




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Financial X-ray overview:http://goo.gl/I38gd4

‑ Easily understand and compare overall costs for particular services

‑ Develop business cases for changes to IT infrastructure

‑ Create an ongoing mechanism for dialogue between finance and IT departments using standard terms of reference

‑ Provide a means of highlighting the comparative cost of shared and commercial third party services

:: Why Jisc? :: Benchmarking

http://goo.gl/I38gd4



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:: Why Jisc? :: ESISS

Information Security advice:

‑ Automated and manual penetration testing

‑ Reporting for audit compliance purposes

‑ Security consultancy‑ Led by Tiger Team

accredited Senior Security Tester

More at:http://goo.gl/6Jz5I7

http://goo.gl/6Jz5I7

http://goo.gl/6Jz5I7

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2. Why Jisc?




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Jisc will not be a party to contracts made under this agreement.

Agreement sets no expectations around costs and charging models for service provision – these are for service provider and customer to agree between themselves.

Jisc’s role is principally brokerage, ensuring that education sector and UK Plc gain maximum benefit from public investments in HPC and Big Data.

Agreement is in no way exclusive, and nothing in it prevents providers from offering their services in other ways.

:: How will it work? :: Jisc’s vision

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We envisage that Jisc’s agreement will:

Serve as a “kite mark” of sorts for HPC service providers, giving customers confidence that the service they are considering purchasing is being run professionally.

Help the UK to move towards more of a market in HPC services, and we are working with the Technology Strategy Board to ensure that it meets the needs of both academia and industry.

Accelerate adoption by reducing friction of engagement.

:: How will it work? ::

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:: How will it work? :: DifferentiationProvider Standard

serviceEnhanced assurance

Specialist hardware (GPU etc)

Specialist software

Consultancy services

ABCD

Examples of differentiation include: access to advice and consultancy services, specialist software and hardware, and enhanced information assurance e.g. where required for export control compliance.

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2. Why Jisc?




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:: Wider E-Infrastructure Opportunity ::

HPC equipment is just one type of E-Infrastructure - other examples include mass spectrometers, gene sequencers, 3D printers, wind tunnels etc.

Standardised terms and conditions, SLA, and information assurance regime (where required) “Argos Catalogue” of equipment that institutions are sharing with each other and with industry.

However in many cases the real challenge is the human expertise required to exploit the equipment.

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:: Wider E-Infrastructure Opportunity ::

HPC equipment is just one type of E-Infrastructure - other examples include mass spectrometers, gene sequencers, 3D printers, wind tunnels etc.

Standardised terms and conditions, SLA, and information assurance regime (where required) “Argos Catalogue” of equipment that institutions are sharing with each other and with industry.

However in many cases the real challenge is the human expertise required to exploit the equipment.

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Martin Hamilton @[email protected] http://martinh.net


Introducing the Jisc National HPC Framework Agreement

Technology

Transcript of Introducing the Jisc National HPC Framework Agreement