Darkstrand and Ohio Supercomputer Center join forces for corporate supercomputing access

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Jun 2, 2009) — 

Darkstrand, a pioneer in corporate high-speed connectivity bridging research and commercialization, today announced a strategic alliance with the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus with the mutual objective of bringing the research and development capabilities of the Center to the national commercial marketplace.

Darkstrand logo

The partnership enables corporations located anywhere on the Darkstrand Network to access OSC’s world-class computing power, technical infrastructure and expertise, and integrated services for collaborative high performance computing (HPC). Companies can also leverage the specialty resources of OSC staff and research institutions throughout Ohio and nationwide to enable breakthrough HPC-based discovery in science and engineering. OSC specialties include: bioscience, advanced materials, environmental science, visualization, computational science and data exploitation.

OSC provides industry access to shared and distributed-memory systems through its IBM 1350 AMD Operon, along with software, storage and support services. OSC additionally provides mid-level HPC users in the industrial and manufacturing sector with easy and affordable access to OSC’s advanced HPC capabilities.

“Since 2004, we have worked with local industry to meet their computational modeling and simulation needs,” said Stan Ahalt, Executive Director, OSC, “Providing advanced cyberinfrastructure through high performance computing coupled with national networking resources to Darkstrand’s clients is a natural and welcome progression.”

“Significantly improved speed, greater bandwidth and access to research brainshare are all requirements if corporate America is going to regain its global competitive advantage,” said Michael Stein, CEO, Darkstrand. “Corporations that leverage the Darkstrand Network to work with OSC will gain the ultimate tools to harness incredible computing power to accomplish their goals more effectively, whether they want to visualize the interaction of intricate biological agents, model the pumping action of the human heart, or simply build a better mousetrap. Darkstrand is really in the business of showing corporations how to do things today that they could not do yesterday – things that go right to the bottom-line of competitive advantage.”

The birthplace of aviation and home to the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison, Ohio has a long history of innovative advances by corporations like Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Goodyear Tire. At its core, OSC is providing supercomputing, networking, research and educational resources to corporations and a diverse state and national community, including education, academic research, industry and state government.

OSC is currently connected to 17 points-of-presence throughout the state via OARnet. OARnet consists of more than 1,850 miles of advanced fiber network backbone attached to national HPC centers such as those sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. U.S. corporations connecting to Darkstrand will now gain access to the vast research capabilities of Ohio’s innovative R&D institutions along with other Darkstrand Network partners, including: Calit2 at the University of California, San Diego; the New Mexico Computing Applications Center; and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

____________

About Darkstrand
Darkstrand, Inc. leverages enterprise-level network bandwidth to close the collaboration gap between corporations and research communities. Darkstrand is a pivotal corporate partner for solving real workflow, development and collaborative challenges, linking teams, facilities and suppliers into one ecosystem in a high-speed, networked grid environment via the National LambdaRail (NLR), a coast to coast 12,000-route mile optical network spread across 30 U.S. cities. Darkstrand shortens time to insight and expands productivity for companies wanting a competitive edge. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Darkstrand was established in 2005. Please visit Darkstrand’s website for more information on corporate supercomputing access.

About Ohio Supercomputer Center
The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) is a catalytic partner of Ohio universities and industries that provides a reliable high performance computing infrastructure for a diverse statewide/regional community including education, academic research, industry, and state government. OSC promotes and stimulates computational research and education in order to act as a key enabler for the state's aspirations in advanced technology, information systems, and advanced industries. For additional information, visit http://www.osc.edu.