IBM makes major commitment to HPC and cloud computing in Ontario

$210-million project

IBM Research is investing $175 million in a consortium of seven Ontario universities for high performance, cloud and agile computing to stimulate the development of new industries in key areas of the provincial economy. The Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) — will receive a total of $210-million to facilitate industry-focused collaboration.

Led by the Univ of Toronto in conjunction with Western Univ, SOSCIP will see IBM install leading-edge supercomputers at the U of T's SciNet HPC Datacentre and cloud and agile computer hardware and software (software modeling with exascale and HPC platforms) at Western. The facilities will be accessible to the consortium's other academic partners — McMaster Univ, Queen's Univ, Univ of Ottawa, Univ of Waterloo and the Univ of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

As part of the agreement, the federal government is providing a $20-million grant to U of T through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev). The provincial government is committing $15 million — $7 million through the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) program to facilitate the participation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and $8 million from the Next Generation Jobs and Investment Fund.

The new computing infrastructure is viewed as essential for large-scale data mining and analytics capabilities to exploit advanced research for commercial development. Projects under the agreement are already being developed that will see SMEs will work in conjunction with IBM and university researchers on pre-competitive research projects related to water, energy, urban planning and health (see chart).

"We're living in an era of big data and having systems and processes to deal with it is a challenge. We're effectively getting swamped with data and the ability to deal with it. That's why the consortium has come together," says Dr Paul Young, U o T's VP research and a key architect of the consortium. "The project will work with SMEs that don't have access to this level of computing power and help to create growth and jobs in Ontario."

"The initiative is expected to help Canada and Ontario continue to increase competitiveness in the global economy and bring new globally unique skills in software engineering and production for future computing and technology platforms to both Canada and Ontario. Through applied innovation and public-private sector collaboration in mutual priorities, significant industrial and regional benefits can be realized." — IBM statement

For IBM, its investment includes a data centre in Barrie ON, north of Toronto — the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre — that will be open to consortium researchers free of charge until 2014. Up to 145 new hires have been committed as well as 100 jobs related to construction of the facility which will open this fall. IBM equipment at Western will be up and running by this summer while U of T's IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputers are slated to come on line this fall.

"The consortium now has funding and software, including operating funds and project funds for post doctoral students and researchers," says Young. "The project is geared to work with businesses to create products and services. It's research but further down the innovation pipeline."

A year in the making, the project is seen as a major win for Ontario in attracting the first IBM R&D centre in Canada. Its virtual structure will allow scientists to work alongside their IBM counterparts as well as SMEs seeking to utilize HPC, cloud and agile computing to bring products and services to market.

The IBM R&D Centre is designed to support both public and private cloud computing models as well as IBM's outsourcing activities. It has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly, utilizing "water side economizer" technology instead of electricity driven chillers. The LEED certified building will significantly decrease IBM's dependency on power cooling to the equivalent of 30 days a year.

"This project will contribute to the building of a number of new industries in the new economy," says Brad Duguid, Ontario's minister of Economic Development and Innovation (MEDI). "It's a huge partnership with public and private input (and) an example of what the new economic development and opportunities are going to look like."

Despite tight fiscal constraints, Duguid says Ontario remains "absolutely committed to the innovation agenda". He notes that innovation grants were "not touched" in the recent provincial Budget and his government has invested $3.6 billion in R&D since 2003. "Now the private sector is stepping up and we are leveraging these investments."

As the smallest member of the SOSCIP consortium, the Univ of Ontario Institute of Technology sees the project as an ideal way to leverage its research into health of premature babies and energy smart grids.

UOIT researchers have been collecting data on premature babies suffering from sepsis and using it to predict health status prior to initial symptoms. It's an approach that can be employed for other health situations such as people in ICUs..

"We have sites around North America and the world producing huge streams of data to store, manage and do analytics. Western's cloud computing capacity will help assist us with this," says Dr Michael Owen, UOIT's associate provost research. "This is a fantastic initiative to help Canada leapfrog into the forefront of cloud and agile computing as well as HPC."

The HPC and cloud computing initiative began as an application by the U of T to fed Dev Ontario for computing infrastructure at the same time discussions were underway in Ontario for a larger IBM presence in the province. Many observers see it as a good example of the kinds of collaborative partnerships governments are encouraging between academia and industry.

"We know this government is eager to increase the commercialization of research and eager to bring industrial money to bear on research and education," says Jim Roche, president and CEO of CANARIE. "This project is a fantastic win for Canada. Industry Canada was instrumental in helping IBM make it work."

"This could be a platform for something really important," says Ron Freedman, a partner at The Impact Group and co-publisher of RE$EARCH MONEY. "The next big thing is big data and this is a powerful extension of that."

IBM is the third largest corporate R&D funder in Canada, spending $551.1 million in 2011.

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