Transforming education and research with edge computing

About the project

Edge computing involves processing data in real-time near the data’s source. It is a hybrid between cloud and on-premise compute facilities, where compute is provided from the heart of the Janet network at near-LAN speed to your campus.  

Through our edge computing proof of concept project, we’re aiming to deliver the benefits of edge computing without the often-hefty price tag by centralising and multi-tenanting the core technologies. We have two edge technologies we are trialling - AWS Outpost and Microsoft Azure Stack (hosted on HPE hardware). There are several use cases we are currently exploring including multi-tenancy, storage, edge databases, and virtual desktop management.

Our vision is to create an edge computing service exclusively for education and research in the UK, available at the edge of Jisc customer's networks.

How this will transform education and research

Know where your data is

Delivering edge computing from the heart of the Janet Network means you know exactly where your data is stored.

We can point to exactly which rack in which data centre your data is located. Sensitive workloads can be stored and processed without ever leaving the Janet Network.

Where data needs to be shared with other institutions, this can all be done without ever leaving the edge computing environment, giving sharing at backplane speeds.

Reduce your cloud costs

Reduce the cost of using public cloud environments by processing data in edge computing and only moving the results to the public cloud for further sharing. Take advantage of multi-tenancy to run flexible or short term workloads as you would in the cloud.

High speed, low latency

At the edge of your network means just that. With near- LAN speed connectivity between your data and the edge computing environment, you can run time-sensitive workloads requiring high-speed analysis faster than if using the public cloud.

Further information

• Read our blog on how a new approach to data handling can enhance teaching and learning