1. Approaching a Data Center Guy Almes net@edu meetings — Tempe 5 February 2007

2. Texas A&M University Outline Current situation How a Data Center might help Texas A&M How a Data Center relates to other cyberinfrastructure coordination Promising approaches Obstacles we’ll likely face

3. Texas A&M University Current Situation Mixture of central and distributed facilities –Existing CIS center at Teague –Numerous scattered small data centers Mixture of shared and dedicated HPC –New 640-processor IBM p575 cluster Latest of series refreshed every three years –Numerous ‘small supercomputers’ –Some use of NSF and DOE national centers

4. Texas A&M University How a Data Center might help Texas A&M Improved electrical power conditioning, costs, and approach to backup Markedly improved air conditioning Cheaper and better system administration Free up space on campus for faculty and students Enable computational- and data-intensive science –across many departments and colleges

5. Texas A&M University Relating to other cyberinfrastructure coordination Advanced instruments –e.g., Microscopy and Imaging Center Visualization facilities –e.g., Immersive Visualization Center Regional and national resources –NSF TeraGrid, DOE NERSC, etc. –LEARN statewide fiber network Enabling effective use –training, curriculum, advanced user support

6. Texas A&M University Promising approaches Combine resources for a smaller number of larger HPC and capacity clusters Focus on large-scale online (and nearline) storage Make this storage accessible at high speed –to each of the large clusters –to key instrument and visualization labs –to key user departments –to wide-area networks Determine resulting space, power, and AC needs

7. Texas A&M University Perhaps most importantly, work with the faculty –to assess data/computing/etc need –to assess resources –to include in planning and advocacy Keep ‘bricks and mortar and human investments parallel

8. Texas A&M University Obstacles Electricity is ‘free’ Phenomenon of the ‘vanity cluster’ Need for multi-year campus-wide planning