Note: The Pacific Research Platform is now the National Research Platform.
Pacific Research Platform: The Future of Big Data Collaboration
From biomedical data to particle physics, today nearly all research and data analysis involves remote collaboration. In order to work effectively and efficiently on multi-institutional projects, researchers depend heavily on high-speed access to large datasets and computing resources.To meet the needs of researchers in California and beyond, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a five-year, $5 million grant to fund the Pacific Research Platform (PRP). The PRP integrates Science DMZs, an architecture developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), into a high-capacity regional “freeway system.” This system makes it possible for large amounts of scientific data to be moved between scientists’ labs and their collaborators’ sites, supercomputer centers or data repositories, even in the cloud.
Built by Scientists and Researchers for Scientists and Researchers
The PRP, led by researchers at UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, will enable fast and secure data transfers between participating institutions, which include all 10 UC campuses, as well as select universities and research facilities across the region and beyond. The project utilizes Pacific Wave and CENIC’s California Research and Education Network (CalREN) to create one large, seamless research platform that will encourage statewide, regional -- even worldwide -- collaboration.
The PRP will support a broad range of data-intensive research projects that will have wide-reaching impacts on science and technology worldwide. Cancer genomics, galaxy evolution research, climate modeling, and the creation of virtual reality gaming systems are just of few of the projects that will benefit from the use of the PRP.
Pacific Research Platform: Big News for Big Data
The PRP’s data-sharing architecture, with end-to-end 10-100 Gbps connections, enables region-wide virtual co-location of data with computing resources. The PRP establishes a science-driven high-capacity data-centric network, enabling researchers to move data between labs and collaborators’ sites, supercomputer centers or data repositories without performance degradation.
Today, dozens of top universities and research centers are doing work across six major research areas, positioning the PRP to be one of the most impactful big data projects in recent history.