Flexential and the University of Pennsylvania Research Computing Center showcase AI capabilities
Flexential and the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Advanced Research Computing Center (PARCC) have launched a phased deployment to support the university's next-generation research computing infrastructure, which targets emerging AI and high-performance computing workloads.
The deployment, based on an NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with DGX B200 systems and NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, supports PARCC's high-density infrastructure requirements. It is housed at Flexential's Philadelphia-Collegeville, Pennsylvania, colocation data center. Flexential, certified as part of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program, designed this facility.
NVIDIA Mission Control will ensure streamlined workflows, agility, and infrastructure resilience, enabling PARCC to serve all 12 of Penn's schools and support diverse research efforts and interdisciplinary programs.
A key highlight of the partnership is how AI can be used across multiple industry verticals.
The deployment aligns with Penn's strategic plan because it enables researchers to pursue AI advancements across fields, including healthcare, science, business, and society. It also builds upon Penn's legacy as the home of the first general-purpose computer.
A flexible facility
Flexential will offer space on its campus and a flexible facility that will allow growth to meet ongoing demands.
Located 25 miles northwest of Penn's campus in Philadelphia, Flexential's Collegeville data center gives the university low-latency access and logistical simplicity for on-site support. The deployment marks the university's first large-scale research computing build of this kind.
Also, Phase I of PARCC's deployment doubles Penn's processing capacity. It offers general high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities for most users and a condo option for faculty who prefer to manage their hardware.
The infrastructure design includes hot data storage colocation to increase data transfer speeds and cost efficiency, and it provides real-time capacity expansion during peak usage.
The Collegeville data center delivers 7.2 MW for high-density workloads in a 203,703-square-foot facility. It maintains service-level power, cooling, network, and bandwidth agreements and offers more than 1,500 watts per square foot. Its built-in liquid cooling capabilities enable cost savings even in compute-intensive environments while providing the technical foundation for expansion as PARCC's computational needs grow.
Kenneth Chaney, PARCC Associate Director of AI and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, said Flexential’s “responsiveness and infrastructure expertise helped turn a complex deployment into a practical, achievable milestone for our research community and will further position us as a leader in computational and data-driven research."
Reducing installation complexity
The group also eliminates friction during on-site deployment by setting up network elements like racks and NVIDIA systems before they are sent to the data center site.
AHEAD, a longtime provider of enterprise IT services for Penn, handled off-site rack integration and on-site cabling to streamline the deployment process.
Pre-configured racks, built around the NVIDIA DGX B200 systems, were delivered to the facility fully populated to minimize on-site setup time and reduce the complexity of the installation.
"This collaboration between Flexential, Penn, AHEAD, and NVIDIA showcases how research computing is being reshaped with flexible, high-performance infrastructure," said Jack Wells, Director of Higher Education and Research Computing at NVIDIA. "Leveraging NVIDIA DGX B200 systems with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking allows organizations to scale compute resources dynamically and support a wide range of AI workloads, from advancing academic discovery to innovation in commercial settings."
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Sean Buckley
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