Boston University faculty can now purchase research computing hardware at specially-negotiated prices, through IS&T’s research computing buy-in program.

For many years, the SCV group has allowed researchers to purchase additional hardware which SCV manages as part of the larger shared computing resources, but is priority scheduled for the researcher’s use. Recently, we have created a more formal model for this and are launching our first pilot program. This program, called “buy-in”, allows researchers to acquire additional, standardized hardware to support their individual research projects. The additional resources are integrated into the larger, SCV-maintained shared facility and managed centrally by the SCV group. The owners of the equipment are given priority access while any excess capacity is returned to the pool for general, shared use. The owners of the equipment determine the access and queuing policies for their portion of the facility. All other standard services are provided without charge.

A working group comprised of Boston University faculty and IT support staff from both the Charles River and Medical Campuses collaborated closely with Boston University Sourcing on a Request for Proposals that was sent to a small number of vendors, selected through a Request for Information this spring.

The buy-in working group considered a large number of systems, in order to offer a variety of systems designed both to meet specific computational needs, and to suit a wide range of budgets (including the desire to purchase this equipment as a capital expense). Six standard configurations are available through the buy-in program, with a variety of additional options as well.

Detailed information about the systems available through the buy-in program is available here. A limited number of systems will be available through the pilot buy-in program, due to space and power limitations on the Charles River Campus. Additional buy-in opportunities will be presented in 2013, as the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center becomes available for use.