Tiers of Triumph: Contributors Pave the Path to SCinet’s Success

Ceci Jones — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 02:47:17 +0000

How exactly does that old saying go, “It takes a village to raise the world’s fastest and most powerful temporary network,” or something along those lines?

For this year’s SCinet crew, that village is extensive and generous with more than 90 contributors donating $43 million worth of hardware, software, services, and nearly 200 SCinet volunteers.

That’s what it takes to plan and execute the SCinet network, whose creation supports the revolutionary applications and experiments that are a hallmark of the SC Conference. SCinet enables exhibitors to demonstrate the advanced computing capabilities of their solutions and services while delivering wireless capability to more than 10,000 conference attendees.

In short, the 2023 SCinet contributors and volunteers are the heart of the village that makes the SCinet magic happen.

“The equipment, WAN connectivity, software, and support personnel provided every year to SCinet by our contributors are literally what make the fastest network on Earth—for a week—possible.”

Brian Smith

SCinet Contributor Relations Co-Lead

“The equipment, WAN connectivity, software, and support personnel provided every year to SCinet by our contributors are literally what make the fastest network on Earth—for a week—possible,” said Brian Smith, SCinet Contributor Relations Co-Lead and Director of Technology at Cornelis Networks. SCinet contributors allow the network to pull in multiple terabits of connectivity, test new gear in a semi-production environment, and demonstrate the practicality of technologies, such as IPv6, to more than 10,000 attendees.

“SCinet volunteers are able to take knowledge and experience they get working with loaned contributor gear back to their home institutions and help influence purchase decisions and potentially improve their home institution’s network speeds, reliability, and security,” Smith said. “All of this is possible because of the generosity of our contributors.”

Hans Addleman is equally effusive about SCinet’s contributor village. As 2023 SCinet Chair, he’s had a front-row seat to the difference their generosity—in both money and time—means for everyone at SC. With several levels of contribution available, from Bronze to Diamond, there’s something for everyone interested in supporting SCinet.

“I cannot overstate the critical role that our dedicated contributors play in the success of the SCinet network at SC23, notably this year’s Diamond contributors, Cisco and PIER Group.”

“I cannot overstate the critical role that our dedicated contributors play in the success of the SCinet network at SC23, notably this year’s Diamond contributors, Cisco and PIER Group,” Addleman said. “Their expertise, innovation, and unwavering commitment are the very backbone of this network, and together, we transform the impossible into reality, ensuring that SC remains a beacon of technological advancement and collaboration.”

Diamonds Are Forever

Every contribution is important, of course, but Diamond contributors go above and beyond with minimum contributions of $5 million each in materials, services, and volunteers. This year’s Diamond contributors are Cisco and PIER Group.

Cisco’s SCinet contributions this year include core routing (Cisco Series 8808 Router) and spine switch (Nexus 9232E) equipment, dense wavelength division multiplexing (NCS 1010, 1002, and 1004) equipment, optical DCI (NCS 1004) equipment, and Cisco NSO.

“At Cisco, the research community is near and dear. As a matter of fact, if it were not for Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack, students at Stanford University, we would not exist,” said Marcus Moffett, Cisco Vice President of Sales System Engineering for the U.S. public sector. “For the past 38 years, the research community has played a critical role as partners in shaping technology and how it positively impacts everything in our daily lives. Our mission is to securely connect everything, to make anything possible, and nowhere is that truer than in research. We at Cisco are proud to continue this long tradition of partnership through the support of SCinet and Supercomputing 2023.”

Marcus Moffett

Vice President of Sales System Engineering,
Cisco Systems

Caleb Williams

Account Manager and Contract Development Lead, PIER Group

For its part, PIER Group is providing about 400 wireless access points weighing over five tons (Aruba AP-635), Aruba Mobility Controller Software (Aruba OS 8.10) with Aruba 9240xm Controllers, Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager for wireless authentication and authorization, and 140 Aruba 6100 and 40 Aruba 6300M switches.

It’s money well spent, according to Caleb Williams, Account Manager and Contract Development lead at PIER Group: “The value PIER Group gets from SCinet is immense. We get to collaborate with our peers from universities and research institutions all over the country—all over the world—for weeks on end. We get to test new technologies and ways of networking that become realities a lot of times shortly after SCinet. Also, the bonds/friendships that are formed at SCinet between all the volunteers are truly bonds for life.”

Get Involved in SCinet 2024

It’s a little too late to become part of the SCinet village for this year, but 2024 is just around the corner.

Learn more about the SCinet contributor program, including details about how to participate and its benefits. Then start making next year’s plans today.