About RCC

About RCC

The Research Computing Center (RCC) is the result of collaboration between the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

RCC is administered by Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) and the Office of Research Services (ORS).

The Center provides high-performance computing hardware and network infrastructure, as well as consulting and training services in pursuit of its mission.

History

The Research Computing Center (RCC) was established in late 2003 as a partnership between the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). The RCC is governed by a Memorandum of Agreement between the two offices, with guidance from a faculty advisory committee and day-to-day leadership from two co-directors.

The RCC was founded, in large part, because it was apparent that the time and technical expertise required to manage high-performance computing and database platforms, software, storage, physical security, cyber security and telecommunications can be very significant. This is even more true as the scale of information technology infrastructure increases in response to trends in research methods and instrumentation.

Frequently, failure to use best practices in system administration, security and documentation of operating procedures are exacerbated by relatively high turnover rates of staff and post-docs in research labs and result in unacceptable risks for the loss of data, unacceptable risk of security compromises and other inefficiencies in support of lab operations. The RCC overcomes these issues by maintaining a professional, career-minded staff of technical experts whose sole goal is to support the information technology needs of research labs.

Mission

The Research Computing Center, RCC was established via a partnership between Vice President for Research and the Chief Information Officer. The mission of the RCC is to provide leadership for, and support of, world-class research computing and communications resources that enhance the productivity of researchers while enabling:

1. acceleration of the rate of new scientific and artistic breakthroughs;
2. collaborative research between UGA researchers and their peers nationally and internationally;
3. provision of effective access to information sources throughout the world; and
4. facilitation of efficient use of information technologies by providing training, outreach, and consulting in the use of hardware and software resources.

The Center provides secure high-performance computing hardware, software, data storage, and network infrastructure located in the Boyd Data Center, as well as consulting and training services in pursuit of its mission. The Center is staffed through a combination of expertise from both the Office of Research Services and Enterprise Information Technology Services.