Director's report
Attribution:Over the last year, NeSI has witnessed rapid uptake of new high performance computing and data infrastructure. We’re now seeing periods of high levels of utilisation and sustained performance under load. The breadth of researchers spanning the research system is growing day by day on NeSI, as are the depth and outcomes from the rich range of partnerships we’re party to.
In 2019, our focus shifted to build on the foundations of the core infrastructure, taking a fresh look at our services as we focused on delivering the full benefits of the investment to the science sector. Early in 2019 we completed a range of investments to move us closer to our research communities. We recruited passionate early career experts in genomics, engineering, and biomedical sciences, and renewed our focus on research community engagement, outreach, and training.
These investments are driving significant growth in our ability to partner with and deliver value to researchers, in a manner which is better fit for their needs. Our training programmes are a particular bright spot, after a period of lower investment and activity. In April, we launched our national Data Transfer Platform in partnership with the global science data platform Globus, aiming to reduce friction and increase connectivity for researchers working with larger datasets. In particular, this has proven popular within genomics communities supported by Genomics Aotearoa and to underpin international collaboration on climate science led by NIWA.
As the year closed, there were discussions underway on extending this platform into Australia, in particular for connectivity into science data generating instruments and facilities commonly used by New Zealand researchers. In all cases, this platform is underpinned by the critical high bandwidth low latency data networks delivered by our network partner in the eResearch ecosystem REANNZ.
Over the last couple of years NeSI has sought to reposition itself as a highly consultative partner of a broad range of research communities and institutions. Coming out of a successful external review commissioned by MBIE in mid-2017, NeSI and its collaborators agreed with MBIE to a set of actions, including the following:
- Enhance team research expertise, contribution to training, and focus on breadth of uptake
- Prioritise current and future service offerings, aligning services with research community and institutional needs
- Define NeSI’s role with respect to other emergent technologies and research needs
- Improve tracking and analysis of research impact, investment benefits, and overall return on investment (ROI)
- Review NeSI’s business model and access policy
Key to this course of action is clearly defining NeSI’s scope and role within a national eScience ecosystem, and adapting our business model to enable success in this role. NeSI has evolved from its early focus and role in coordinating access to a range of computing facilities owned and operating by its collaborators.
As we evolve our own capabilities, we’re witnessing rapid evolution of the technologies underpinning high performance computing (HPC). While the early developments of cloud technologies were commodity in nature, performance at the top end has hit an inflection point over the past couple of years. Cloud providers are now creating high performance technologies of real value to HPC communities globally, from containers for portable and reproducible workflows through to interactive notebooks for collaborative data analysis.
NeSI sees our future as one of embracing cloud-native architectures. We’re preparing to support researchers in using these technologies, enabling ever greater performance and flexibility in their science.
As an organisation with its roots in infrastructure, we’re working hard to refocus on our relations with researchers, communities, and institutions while not losing focus on our core expertise in high performance computing and data. More than ever we’re valuing our interactions with our users as the core of how we work and to guide us in facilitating national needs.
As the new year starts, we’re all facing an unprecedented degree of uncertainty. What this highlights is the pressing need for a greater range of advanced computational and data skills and capabilities. Many in this emerging new world are already seeking the digital computational skills to stay engaged. Meanwhile, our institutions are facing a sharp punctuation to their existing modes of business, and suddenly destabilising cost pressures.
NeSI has been classified an essential service, in recognition of the biomedical and population health research projects already operating on NeSI as a part of the national COVID-19 response. Across the year ahead, NeSI will assess the need for ever more efficient and collaborative pathways to realise our national shared infrastructure needs, to ensure our collective resilience and sustainability.
Nick Jones
Director
