FY2024 Accomplishments
ITS’ Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team has spent 2024 supporting researchers across U-M by providing high-performance computing allocations, high-performance data access, secure and sustainable data archiving, and computational support to allow researchers to take full advantage of ARC’s offerings.
High-Performance Computing: Powering Research Institutions
ARC’s high-performance computing cluster, Great Lakes, provides researchers with access to 123 terabytes of RAM to process incredibly large datasets, often leading to new discoveries and research advancements. Great Lakes is a computational powerhouse, capable of speeds more than 15,000 times that of an average laptop, a necessity for the 1,600+ researchers who used Great Lakes last year and beyond to draw important conclusions based on data trends.
Sustainability & Data Storage
Data Den, ARC’s archival storage service, uses a Linear Tape-Open format storage system to store large volumes of data for an extended period of time, often supporting researchers in meeting grant requirements. The use of Data Den upholds U-M's commitment to environmentally responsible operations, saving over 1,200 tons of CO2 each year when compared to an active storage system.
Innovation in Data Visualization
As researchers continue to push boundaries and make new discoveries, the importance of visually representing their findings increases. In FY2024, ARC introduced a specialized “viz” partition, consisting of four nodes on Great Lakes equipped with NVIDIA P40 GPUs. This new partition allows researchers to produce data visualizations up to ten times better than the previous technology allowed.
Impressive Infrastructure
ARC's services offer incredible speeds and space for storage, allowing researchers to reimagine what is possible when it comes to analyzing and storing data. Data Den Research Archive contains 1,580 tapes, each containing 960 m of tape. The 1,600 km of tape housed by Data Den is enough to cover the distance between Ann Arbor and Jacksonville, Florida.
The Great Lakes high-performance computing cluster specializes in incredibly fast data processing. The cluster is so fast that it would take 300 million people processing two numbers per second for 38 days of non-stop input to process what Great Lakes can process in one second.
Turbocharged Data Access
Serving over 2,000 researchers, Turbo Research Storage is ARC's active storage system, allowing researchers to access stored files via a local computer in a lab, office, or ARC's high-performance computing clusters. Turbo offers high speed processing, averaging a read time of 6.6 gigabytes per second over a 24 hour period, a speed which would consume more than half the university's bandwidth, if allowed. The next generation of Turbo will quadruple in speed, helping to increase research productivity as a crucial storage tool.
Comprehensive Research Package
The U-M Research Computing Package is a comprehensive suite of resources, offering high-performance computing hours, secure enclave services, replicated storage, and extensive archive capacity at no cost to members of the U-M community. Designed to meet the diverse needs of researchers, instructors, student teams, including Michigan Medicine, this package demonstrates ARC's dedication to nurturing an innovative research community.
Testimonials
“We generate a lot of data, and storage is important to our work. Thank you to ARC for providing their continual assistance for group members who have been in trenches. This has been a decade-long effort, and ITS/ARC was crucial along the journey.”
The profound impact of ARC's services on the university's research community is perhaps best articulated by the words of Dr. Vikram Gavini from U-M's College of Engineering. Dr. Gavini's research, which utilizes ARC's Great Lakes cluster, won the 2023 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which is considered the most prestigious prize available for high-performance computing.
“Without Advanced Research Computing services, it would not be possible to complete my work.”
Assistant Research Scientist Alauddin Ahmed, whose work on carbon capture and energy storage — and that of many others — has also taken the time to praise the advanced computing resources and support provided by ARC.
Key ARC FY2024 Accomplishments
These selected accomplishments from FY2024 reflect ARC's commitment to driving research excellence, offering cutting-edge infrastructure and supporting U-M's sustainability initiatives:
High-Performance Computing (HPC)
- 123 terabytes of RAM on Great Lakes
- 1,600+ researchers using HPC services
- Implementation of specialized "viz" partition for improved data visualization
Research Storage
- 2,000+ researchers utilizing Turbo Active Storage
- Improved research data access with future Turbo upgrades
Sustainability Support
- 1,200 tons of CO2 saved by Data Den
- 1,600 km of tape for archive storage
Investment in the Research Community with UMRCP
- 80,000 high-performance computing hours provided
- 10 terabytes of high-performance active storage
- 100 terabytes of archive storage
- 16 gigabytes RAM for Secure Enclave Services