Unidata's Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system has been instrumental in moving geoscience data to U.S. universities for nearly 20 years, and hard-wired networks have played an important role in the growth of data-driven scientific discovery. But moving beyond the wired world is the next important step for cyberinfrastructure, which is why Unidata is proud to announce a new partnership between Unidata, Google, and select U.S. universities to bring truly cloud-based services to the geoscience community.
Building on Google's “Project Loon,” Unidata is introducing the UniLoon Cloud Platform.
Project Loon utilizes “balloons [that] float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather…By partnering with Telecommunications companies to share cellular spectrum we've enabled people to connect to the balloon network directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices. The signal is then passed across the balloon network and back down to the global Internet on Earth,” according to a Project Loon spokesperson.
Unidata's balloon based platform will serve data from the Cloud(s) to Unidata community members. Each UniLoon consists of 15 Raspberry Pi computers configured as a Beowulf Cluster, each Pi being equipped with a 128 GB flash thumb drive. The Unidata balloon platform is then tethered to a Google Loon balloon by a single, high-end, top-of-the-line gold-plated ethernet cable. (While quite expensive, gold-plated cables are reputed to deliver higher-quality bits than cables constructed from base metals.) To complete the UniLoon Cloud Platform, a swarm of quadrotor drones is used to steer the UniLoons to universities on demand. This gives the UniLoon Cloud Platform all the benefits of Cloud Computing with the advantage of data locality.
With the announcement of UniLoon, Unidata is offering the opportunity for our university partners to sponsor UniLoon Cloud Platforms. (Due to the expense of the gold-plated ethernet cables, our current NSF grant cannot afford to build even one UniLoon Cloud Platform). The first University sponsor to embrace this new technology is the Millersville University (see pictured balloon). As a sponsor, Millersville will always have first dibs on access to their fully branded UniLoon Cloud Platform. Department Chairman and Professor of Meteorology Rich Clark had this to say about Millersville University's sponsorship of the UniLoon Cloud Platform: “Well…Unidata has done some crazy stuff in the past, but it's mostly turned out to be at least mediocre. Without University partners, Unidata would not exists, and, well, honestly, someone had to step up to give them a chance.”
“We really feel like we're on the right track,” says Unidata Director Mohan Ramamurthy. “After last year's misunderstanding about moving the Program Center to St. Cloud, Minnesota, we've redoubled our efforts to get Unidata airborne.”
Change can be difficult, but Unidata Program Center systems administrator Mike Schmidt was quick to reassure community members that not everything will be different. “The Unidata data hallway will continue to operate as usual,” he says.
The initial UniLoon launch is sheduled for April 1, 2015.
