2.7
zettabytes of data exist in
the digital universe today. A
zettabyte is one sextillion (10 21 ) bytes
Iceland offers abundant,
reliable, 100% renewable
power with free cooling
collaborative and far-reaching. Research
organisations now extend across the
globe to work on complex issues, research
trials, experiments and innovations that
impact society. From big data analytics to
genomics, science and education research
is compute-intensive, complex, and
costly. The demand for computing
capability is increasing pressure on the
capacity and operational costs for data
centre services, especially in locations
like the UK where energy prices are high
and power supply is low and insecure.
D e l i v eri n g A c c ess t o
a P o w e r f u l Op t i o n
Op t i m i s e d f o r H P C
This is where Jisc and the Janet Network,
the UK’s world-leading research and
education network, comes in to play.
Through partnerships with Jisc,
NORDUnet, GÉANT, and other National
Research and Education Networks
(NRENs), research institutes can now
access remote data centres abroad with
abundant, reliable power that is based
100% on renewable resources, in
locations where ambient temperatures
provide free cooling to keep the servers
operating at optimal levels. For example,
by connecting its data centre in Iceland
to the network, Verne Global has enabled
the UK’s academic and enterprise
research community to benefit from a
secure predictable path to HPC, doing
more with less and providing access to
an energy grid and power supply that is
100% green and at a lower cost.
Jon Tucker, the executive director of
membership engagement at Jisc, stated:
“Jisc is constantly striving to ensure its
members and science park customers are
able to choose from solutions that best
meet their needs, allowing them to
maximise the impact of their academic
or enterprise work. Our agreement with
Verne Global to connect to their facilities
in Iceland could offer customers more
predictable costs for HPC, powered by
renewable geothermal energy. While this
venture is embryonic, we are very excited
about the potential opportunities this
arrangement will create for Jisc’s
members and science park customers.”
Verne Global’s Icelandic data centre
– which has been optimised to support
HPC workloads – provides the ability
to process, analyse, and store large
amounts of data and optimise computing
capacity while reducing carbon footprints.
This ensures long-term, sustainable
computing and connectivity for the Janet
community. Additionally, this power
supply can help lower the Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) on power by over 70%
when compared to UK energy pricing.
Cracking the Code on the
Wh e at G e n o m e
As an example, researchers at Earlham
Institute, a leading bioscience research
facility in the UK, deploy some of the
largest shared memory computing
resources dedicated to life sciences in
providing access to an energy
g r i d a n d p o w e r s u p p ly t h at i s 10 0 %
g r e e n a n d at a l o w e r c o s t
R e a d o n l i n e at: u k s pa . o r g . u k / b r e a k t h r o u g h
w i n t e r 2 0 17 | U K S PA b r e ak t h r o u g h | 4 3