University of Edinburgh Implements OpenStack-Based Private Cloud for Enhanced Research Capabilities
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- United Kingdom
Product
- FishOS
- FishDirector
Tech Stack
- OpenStack
- Ceph Storage System
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Energy Saving
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Private Cloud
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
Applicable Industries
- Education
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
The University of Edinburgh is a prestigious institution, ranked 19th globally, 6th in Europe, and 4th in the UK. It is the largest university in Scotland, known for its innovative research, with 83% of its research classified as world-leading and internationally excellent. The University's Information Services Group, consisting of approximately 700 staff, supports 36,000 students and 13,000 staff members. The University is committed to providing cutting-edge research facilities and services, making it a leader in the academic and research community.
The Challenge
The University of Edinburgh aimed to implement an OpenStack-based private cloud to provide its researchers with flexible, self-served computing services. The goal was to build a solution on an advanced, flexible, and cost-effective platform using open-source technologies. The private cloud, conceptualized in April 2016, needed to be operational by September 2016 to coincide with the academic year. The objective was to enable enhanced computational and data services tailored to the University's high-value and fast-growing Data Science research workloads, including Spark and Hadoop computational workloads. The solution was designed to be scalable, initially targeting 200+ hypervisors, and to complement the University's existing computational capacity.
The Solution
Sardina Systems implemented a solution based on FishOS' operational architecture, allowing the University to operate the private cloud flexibly and reliably. The OpenStack-based cloud included a Ceph storage system designed for high performance and reliability, with a balanced configuration of SSD and NL SATA drives for 3x replication. OpenStack networking was optimized for high performance and cost-effectiveness using distributed virtual routers (DVR). All management services operated in highly available (HA) mode, ensuring service uptime even if entire racks of management servers were turned off. The solution design enabled Zero-Downtime Upgrade with FishOS Upgrader, starting with FishOS Starter and allowing upgrades to FishOS White. The system was driven by AI to optimize resource utilization, ensuring application performance and eliminating idle servers. FishOS provided a full-lifecycle view on OpenStack cloud, enabling confident deployment, operation, and upgrade with zero downtime.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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