Founded in 1820, Indiana University (IU) is one of the oldest public universities in the United States, with a mission deeply rooted in education, research, and service. Across its multiple campuses, IU offers world-class academic programs, from its top-ranked Kelley School of Business to the renowned Jacobs School of Music, and is home to the nation’s first schools of informatics and philanthropy.
Indiana University leads in innovative research and creative activity across disciplines. IU’s efforts to expand knowledge are evident through its engagement in projects that not only enhance the lives of people in Indiana but also have a global impact. From life-changing breakthroughs in medicine, such as developing the cure for testicular cancer, to housing the world’s largest medical school, IU continues to be a pillar of research
Committed to open access and innovation, Indiana University has fully embraced open source technologies within its advanced research infrastructure and development processes. Projects like Jetstream2 have pushed the boundaries of cloud-based research, enabling thousands of researchers to perform cutting-edge scientific work across a variety of diverse and complex fields.
The Jetstream2 cloud, funded by the National Science Foundation and hosted at Indiana University, is tasked with providing researchers across the country with on-demand cloud infrastructure, which involves significant challenges. The primary challenge is scalability. With more than 3,000 active users and peaks reaching 5,000, the infrastructure must handle a vast and continuous demand for resources.
Researchers require highly customizable virtual machines (VMs) to run complex computations, ranging from programming and AI research to advanced tasks like DNA sequencing and data analysis. This means the system must remain highly flexible and reliable, allowing for easy scaling without sacrificing performance, stability, or efficiency, which is essential for supporting a wide array of research needs.
With limited budgets and extensive support requirements, a cost-effective infrastructure is essential for researchers. Jetstream2, funded by the US National Science Foundation, addresses this challenge by offering researchers a no-cost platform to prototype and scale their projects on a platform that is coupled with expert research and education support, ensuring that resources remain accessible and efficient for all users involved.
Maintaining reliability across such a broad platform is crucial. Indiana University relies heavily on open source solutions like Ceph for distributed replication and self-healing properties, ensuring data integrity across multiple campuses. However, dealing with unexpected technical issues, such as strange bugs and hardware failures, has required expert collaboration to maintain stability.
By integrating Ceph's scalable and self-healing storage solutions, Indiana University enhanced its infrastructure to meet significant research demands. Ceph offers flexible solutions, enabling customizable virtual machines for varied research activities. In conjunction with expert support from 42on, issues were effectively addressed, ensuring system stability and reliability.
Collaborating with 42on provided Indiana University access to essential technical expertise needed to maintain and improve its research infrastructure. These valuable alliances allowed IU to leverage Ceph's open source capabilities more efficiently, creating a cost-effective platform that supports scalable, robust research activities and anticipates future developments.
Indiana University successfully supports over 3,000 active users, with peaks reaching nearly 5,000. This has enabled significant research projects, including the creation of the first black hole images.
Implementing Ceph led to significant improvements in cloud infrastructure scalability and reliability. The university can now provide on-demand computing resources essential for various research activities.
Jetstream2 facilitated groundbreaking research and prototyping, like real-time DNA sequencing and AI advancements. Researchers benefit from infrastructure that supports diverse computational needs without expensive hardware investments.
With recent grants focusing on artificial intelligence, Indiana University plans to expand its Ceph-based solutions further. Continued infrastructure enhancements are anticipated, promising even more robust research support.
42on supports Ceph teams with the complete operation of Ceph clusters by providing Consultancy, Training, Emergency Assistance, and Managed Services.
Why choose 42on as your partner for your open source infrastructure?
42on's passion for open source, particularly Ceph, is not just a statement but a core ethos. Actively engaged in the Ceph and related open source communities, our contributions to GitHub, tech blogs and events showcase our enthusiastic involvement
We avoid vendor lock-in and work together with clients that use open source or subscribed Ceph. This vendor-agnostic approach ensures clients have the freedom to choose their preferred vendor while benefiting from 42on's expert support and guidance.
We understand that every business has unique needs. Therefore, we provide a range of services that allow you to customize your level of control. You can choose to maintain complete control or delegate tasks as you see fit.
