LSBU partners with technology giant IBM to pilot Computing Cloud Service
London South Bank University has tested a new cloud service that provides researchers and students with on-demand high performance computingAs students and researchers at LSBU tackle increasingly complex questions, providing access to high performance computing (HPC) resources has become more important. However traditional "clusters" - connected computers that work together in a similar way to a single system – can be expensive to maintain.
The university's School of Engineering took part in a two-month trial of the IBM Platform Computing Cloud Service which offered a more cost-effective ready-to-run cluster in the cloud. Senior Lecturer Dr Elsa Aristodemou utilised the system in her research to model the dispersion of pollutants in the urban environment and predict air quality, which required high performance computing to run several simulations at once.
"The IBM Platform Computing Cloud Service gives us access to HPC capabilities without the headache of supporting a dedicated cluster," said Dr Aristodemou.
Over the two-month trial the system was also used by research students from LSBU's School of Engineering and School of The Built Environment and Architecture, providing hands-on experience that helps students prepare for practical demands of future careers.