At the heart of any organization’s success lies effective communication and collaboration across its various departments. Here at UBC, the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team is dedicated to not only supporting technology solutions and research but also ensuring seamless communication with key stakeholders, including UBC IT and the VP Research and Innovation office. To learn more about this team and the current projects they are supporting, UBC IT spoke to Ryan Thomson, Systems Architect for ARC. Ryan’s team is dedicated to supporting technology solutions and research initiatives across the university.
What is ARC working on right now?
The ARC team is currently undertaking a significant upgrade to UBC ARC Sockeye, which resides in the university’s data centre. This upgrade involves replacing the operating system and existing cluster management tools with open-source alternatives to ensure information security standards are maintained. The upgraded platform will continue to provide dedicated high-performance computing resources to researchers across all disciplines.
Sockeye is accessible to all UBC researchers holding research funds, spanning various faculties and departments. Approximately 280 researchers and their research teams currently have access to Sockeye, facilitating their diverse research endeavors.
In response to the growing demand for efficient service delivery, the ARC team is focused on infrastructure and operations automation. Utilizing tools such as Ansible, they aim to streamline processes for provisioning new hosts and servers, ensuring faster, more reliable service delivery. Despite challenges in learning new tools and keeping pace with technological advancements, the team remains dedicated to enhancing efficiency and service quality.
When asked about his favourite aspect of working on the ARC team, Ryan emphasized the satisfaction he derives from assisting researchers in achieving more in less time. He underscores the importance of staying current with technological advancements to efficiently deliver services. Ryan’s passion lies in ensuring that UBC remains dynamic and effective in supporting research, ultimately benefiting the university community.
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Through Strategy 7: Research Support, UBC is enhancing digital research infrastructure in many areas of scholarship.