A leader in STEM education, research, and economic development, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) recently implemented a plan to upgrade their high performance computing (HPC) resources on campus. As part of this initiative, NJIT partnered with Databank to build this HPC environment at their data center in Piscataway, N.J. Driven by their continued growth in research initiatives, this new addition aims to improve the performance of NJIT’s research computing environment and capabilities. To deploy this HPC environment and have the capacity to utilize this resource, NJIT needed significant bandwidth, both in the number of circuits, the amount of bandwidth per circuit, and the ability for those services to be available one hundred percent of the time.
To fulfill this need for redundant services, NJIT looked to long-time partner, Edge, to provide an exceptional connectivity experience through their optical fiber network, EdgeNet. In the past, Edge has provided external services to NJIT, including connectivity to the Internet, peering infrastructure, and cloud services platform. With this recent expansion, Edge is helping operate internal network resources that the University depends on by building and operating an optical infrastructure that sits inside EdgeNet.
NJIT looked to long-time partner, Edge, to provide an exceptional connectivity experience through their optical fiber network, EdgeNet. In the past, Edge has provided external services to NJIT, including connectivity to the Internet, peering infrastructure, and cloud services platform. With this recent expansion, Edge is helping operate internal network resources that the University depends on by building and operating an optical infrastructure that sits inside EdgeNet.
Tapping into expertise and experience
When first exploring the implementation of this new HPC cluster, NJIT knew these resources would require high bandwidth and highly available services to connect back to the main campus. At first, the University considered investing in the optical hardware, but discovered the operational expenses for the fiber leases, the ongoing hardware support, and staff augmentation and training to build and manage this kind of environment could be challenging and expensive. Plus, multiple circuits needed to be built and maintained over these two geographically diverse fiber paths, in addition to having team members monitor the service, troubleshoot issues, and dispatch the correct resources to restore services in the event of an outage.
With these requirements and responsibilities being native to Edge, NJIT could tap into the knowledge, resources, and support of the consortium and meet the needs of this new HPC environment without having to make their own capital investment in the hardware infrastructure. Working with Edge, NJIT was able to achieve the bandwidth they needed today, while also receiving an economically scalable platform for the future. Plus, by counting on Edge’s experienced network team who are well versed in operating these types of networks across the region, NJIT reduced their need to hire additional staff and train them on these new technologies and hardware platforms.
Meeting current and future bandwidth needs
The majority of Edge’s core infrastructure is a shared service for all member institutions to utilize. For this project, NJIT had specific requirements for the fiber and hardware that would be deployed to support these services. By dedicating the platform to NJIT, the University will have the room to grow and can add bandwidth circuits to the platform without incurring additional expenses. Most importantly, since the service is exclusively dedicated to NJIT and the specific application, they will not have to worry about other members’ activities or common disruptions that can be seen on the consortium network. As one of just three R1 universities in New Jersey, adding these new HPC resources will help NJIT continue to pursue national and international recognition in research and expand their influence within the innovation ecosystem.
Through their customized solutions and services, Edge can help boost cost savings and operational efficiency to member institutions like NJIT. To learn more about EdgeNet services and Edge’s 24/7/365 support, visit njedge.net/solutions-overview/network-connectivity-and-internet2.
