The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) will be the first university in Australia to implement a dedicated cloud supercomputing facility on Amazon Web Services (AWS), driving digital innovation in research and education at a much higher scale.
The cloud supercomputing facility will use AWS to provide elastic, secure, and scalable cloud infrastructure for the university’s industry hubs such as Industry 4.0, advanced manufacturing, space, fintech, digital health, and creative technologies.
The new cloud infrastructure will help RMIT’s researchers and students to innovate beyond the limitations of on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and accelerate time-to-science by running HPC applications with seamless access.
Workloads such as genomic sequencing, autonomous vehicle simulations, and atmospheric modelling are often too large to run on traditional servers. AWS’s HPC, which provides virtually unlimited compute capacity, meets the infrastructure requirements of almost any application.
This advantage allows researchers to process huge volumes of data to help solve some of the world’s most complex challenges in far less time – from disease prevention, extreme weather forecasting, and citizen safety.
RMIT will leverage AWS Direct Connect, enabling customers to have low latency, secure and private connections to AWS for workloads that need higher speed or lower latency than the internet.
AWS’s increased bandwidth will give RMIT the ability to experiment and test new ideas and discoveries involving large data sets at speed. This enables them to fast-track the time between concept and products that are ready to take to the market.
RMIT will collaborate with telecommunications provider AARNet, which will provide the university with high-speed internet and communication services.
They will also collaborate with global technology company Intel for its advanced technology solutions to process, optimise, store, and move large, complicated data sets.
RMIT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (STEM College) and Vice President of Digital Innovation Professor Aleksandar Subic said the facility is a pioneering example of innovation in the university sector.
“Our collaboration with AWS, Intel, and AARNET to establish Australia’s first cloud supercomputing facility represents a step-change in how universities and industries access HPC capabilities for advanced data processing and computing,” Vice-Chancellor Subic said.
“By leveraging AWS Direct Connect, RMIT is set to access tremendous HPC processing power using a unique service model that provides seamless access to all our staff, researchers, and students.”
Vice-Chancellor Subic also revealed that RMIT’s industry partners will have access to the new cloud supercomputing facility through joint projects and programs and that the facility will be operated by the university’s researchers and students.
AWS Director and Country Leader for Worldwide Public Sector in Australia and New Zealand Iain Rouse said AWS will help researchers quickly analyse massive amounts of data and share results with collaborators around the world.
“With access to the broadest and deepest portfolio of cloud services, RMIT can innovate beyond the limitations of on-premises computing, and keep up with scientific advances worldwide,” Director Rouse said
“We are proud to support ground-breaking research initiatives in collaboration with RMIT, which is set to enable researchers, students, and industry across a broad range of sectors to design solutions and bring them to market sooner, all of which wouldn’t be possible at the speed and scale without the elasticity of the cloud.”
AARNet CEO Chris Hancock said that while they had provided RMIT and other Australian universities with leading-edge telecommunications services to enable transformational research outcomes for decades, the cloud supercomputing facility was a new deal for them.
“We’re excited to be partnering with RMIT on this project that uses our ultra-fast network to remove the barrier of geography and distance for research across Australia and beyond,” CEO Hancock said.
RMIT’s new School of Computing Technologies, a centre for digital innovation, world-class research, and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, launched earlier this year. The School of Computing Technologies supports the development and operation of the cloud supercomputer, building on its sector-leading capabilities in cloud technologies.
WITH NEWS FROM AAP
Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.
