Oxford University is reporting that it is to spend £1.2 million on a new data center to meet its growing need for data space and massive calculations.
Until recently, small systems had been sufficient as supercomputing at the University was focused on providing high-octane scratch space' for research calculations. However, the high performance computing lab (HPC) was now encountering storage issues traditionally the preserve of corporate storage managers.
In August, the University will open a new Oxford e-Research Centre (OeRC) which will use a supercomputer capable of carrying out 15 trillion calculations per second for intricate and dynamic computer modelling such as climate simulation. It will provide a central computing and data repository for researchers at each of the 39 colleges at the university.
During the latest reinvestments in technology, according to center manager Dr. Jon Lockley, a new need for data center storage has emerged in a computing environment once solely concerned with CPU horsepower.