What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a technology that allows people to access and use computing resources (like servers, storage, databases, etc) over the internet, rather than owning and maintaining physical hardware and software. It offers flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, as people can scale resources up or down as needed and pay for what they use. However, here at the Data Discovery program, students enrolled will not have to pay for the resources as we are offering free Savio or SRDC credits, or a virtual machine platform.
Savio
Research IT provides the Savio computing cluster for use by campus researchers and their collaborators. Savio is a Linux cluster with high-speed, low-latency networking and a high-speed parallel filesystem for high performance computing (HPC).
More information about Savio and its features can be found on the Research IT page.
To request Savio access, please follow the instructions in this guide.
An introduction video to Savio can be found here.
Research IT's Savio training guide can be found here.
Secure Research Data and Compute (SRDC) Platform
The Secure Research Data and Compute (SRDC) Platform is a secure computing environment developed for researchers working with highly sensitive (P4) data. The SRDC includes high performance computing (HPC), computing on virtual machines (VMs) with Linux and Windows servers, and protected storage for both options. A combined approach of providing data management and computation support helps researchers integrate data management best practices into their larger research workflows. Through a coalition of partners from across campus, the SRDC Platform has been designed for use by a broad range of researchers, without compromising usability or performance.
To request SRDC access, please contact the Discovery Consultant team at: ds-discovery@berkeley.edu
Virtual Machine Platform
A Virtual Machine platform is currently in the works. Our goal is to have all users on the Virtual Machine platform, but users with immediate cloud computing needs can request Savio or SRDC credits in the meantime. Please stay tuned for more information!