E-Infrastructure

There are several options you can choose from to ease large complex computational tasks.

ICT High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster

~87k cores with resources for a range of computing tasks requiring high-throughput, large memory, or GPUs. Getting started, Intro to HPC, Help, Clinics.

MMM Young Tier 2 HPC

See Young. UK National Tier-2 High Performance Computing Hub in Materials and Molecular Modelling with ~23k cores. Training is available. Contact Prof. Arash Mostofi for access.

DGX

ESE Computing is commissioning two Nvidia DGX servers with 8 A100 GPUs each, for research and postgraduate student projects. 

Cloud computing on Azure

ESE has several subscriptions for teaching and research.

• Low capital investment and pay per utilisation.
• Advantages include no hardware liability on client side.
• Flexibility to scale resource requirements dynamically.
• Resources include Virtual Machines, Kubernetes Clusters, SQL Database, Data Storage, Web Apps, Virtual Networks etc.

Please do not store your important data in just one place. Everything should be backed up, the more important the data or the harder it is to create the most locations and types of storage you should back it up on.

It is possible to retrieve lost data, but its is chargeable and quite expensive. See our recommended partner, Ontrack.

See Tips and tricks for advice on file saving. 

There are various storage options available, please ask us for more information about any of them.

San Storage (Your H drive or other mapped drives)

Please consider moving from this to another storage medium as below.

OneDrive

Your personal data should be stored on OneDrive, you have a 5TB allowance, it’s easy to share, it is backed up and it has version control enabled to make it easy to recover lost data or undo changes. See OneDrive for Business.

SharePoint

Please use SharePoint for shared administrative data.

USB / External HDD / Internal storage

Please only use these as temporary means of transferring data from offline / field locations, or as a backup to another place of storage.

Do not use an external hard drive for the only copy of your data!

Box

Please do not use this as its being depreciated, ensure anything on Box is removed asap.

Other

Do not use services such as Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox for College data.

RDS (Research Data Store)

Cost-efficient method for storing large quantities of data securely. 2TB quota per research [roject. Above that rates are very low (from £1.50/TB/month). See Research Data Store (RDS).

Virtually unlimited data space available on data less than 30 days old. Fast connection to the HPC cluster. Archiving service is available. Easily mounted as a network drive on any system.

Git

GitHub is a version control repository that is used widely by software developers for versioning and collaborating on code, both publicly and privately.

Github Enterprise (GHE)

Intended for College members who are working with sensitive data or have strict security requirements above that offered by private repositories in GitHub.com. GHE comes with other benefits over GitHub.

Globus

If you need to transfer large quantities of data to and from HPC consider using Globus: Transferring data to other sites with Globus

Before starting your search for a suitable computer, consider what it will be used for. Check the hardware and software requirements for any applications, then do some research on what will meet your needs.

Please agree a budget and get a project code the purchase can be charged to before approaching a member of the computing team for support.

New starters

New members of staff in a new centrally funded post are eligible for a new computer and monitor. Please speak to the Computing Team for advice. If you are replacing an existing member of staff, you should inherit their old equipment.

New PhD students, please speak to your supervisor to agree your computing requirements.

BT Business direct

Please buy all peripherals and accessories from BT Business Direct if possible.

HP

The official IT supplier for the College is HP. 

Dell

You can also purchase IT equipment from Dell.  Be aware you will not see the college discount, nor most of the configuration options here, so use this page as a guideline and then approach the Computing Team

Spares / peripherals

The Computing Team have a large number of spares, please consider using those before purchasing new monitors, cables or other accessories.

When your computer or peripheral is getting too old to be useful please speak to the Computing team who can help you use dispose of it. You can use the College Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) service yourself if you have a large quantity of items. 

If your computer was centrally purchased it is eligible for a free renewal after 4 years, or 5 years for monitors. See Technology Refresh Programme.

You may wish to purchase your old device, if so please fill in this online IT disposal form.

You can access software via ICT's Software Hub.

You can also get software via ICT for a local install via the following: 

• Get software
• On The Hub
• Microsoft Azure

You can also ask ICT’s Technology Procurement team: Raise a generic request via ASK Imperial

For specialist ESE software or general queries about where to get software please speak to the ESE Computing team.

Please speak to the Computing team before entering into any agreement for Software (free or otherwise).

You can access training via the following:

Graduate school

To participate in some excellent programmes explore Graduate School training.

ICT-HPC

ICT’s Research Computing team offer training on various aspects of using the HPC / Research Computing Service (RCS): RCS Training

Other

• The College has a partnership with LinkedIn Learning, an online library that helps you learn software tools and skills through instructional videos taught by industry experts.
• Software Carpentry Foundation: teaching researchers the computing skills they need to get more done in less time and with less pain.