Announcing research computing with RONIN on AWS

To allow more visibility into and management of Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources and expenses and minimize the cloud skills training required to operate these resources, AWS Partner RONIN created the RONIN research computing platform. RONIN gives researchers the ability to create exactly the computers or storage that they need in minutes. With access to the flexibility and scalability of the cloud, researchers are able to store and process larger datasets, collaborate globally, and adapt to changing technologies and research methods instantly. Research IT can spend less time provisioning unique hardware and systems, and spend more time enabling researchers to leverage advanced computing technologies and algorithms.

Bring the power of AWS to research

RONIN is an AWS Partner solution with a simple interface that empowers researchers to create and control AWS computing resources, set and monitor budgets, and forecast spend—with minimal knowledge of the cloud. By using RONIN, researchers have the ability to launch a graphical desktop to a Windows workstation one moment and create an autoscaling cluster more powerful than many supercomputers the next. Learn more about RONIN.

This capability is provided within an environment that is configured to support research IT’s specified security standards and compliance requirements, enabling them administrative and financial oversight over cloud resources created by researchers.

Make the computer fit the data

RONIN is currently used by researchers at universities around the world. At the University of Sydney, RONIN enabled the Wildlife Genomics Group to scale on demand to reduce genomics analysis time from 10 days to 6 hours. The group studies non-model species to better understand how they can protect wildlife animal populations in Australia. Dr. Caroline Hogg, senior research manager of the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group, describes the benefits of AWS to her research: “Rather than fit the data on the computer we have, with RONIN and AWS, we can make the computer fit the data.”

Control access to research environments

RONIN also provides a way for researchers to analyze sensitive data. Australia’s Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) used RONIN to create a secure big data research environment to access a set of limited claims data produced by Health Management Systems Inc. (HMS).

“The HMS data provides the foundation for research projects across the globe,” said Dr. Michael Costello, interim chief executive officer (CEO) of DHCRC. “However, we needed a technology platform that would enable us to manage the data centrally while still giving researchers self-service capabilities. Additionally, this is sensitive patient data and we had to ensure it was compliant with data protection regulations across two jurisdictions.”

In the US, the organization’s deployment is in an HMS-owned account, where the data never leaves the jurisdiction and DHCRC never has to copy the data set to another infrastructure owned by a third party. “We can tightly control access to the research environment with the built-in security in AWS and the RONIN platform,” said Costello.

Research acceleration package

RONIN and AWS are introducing a limited* Research Acceleration Package complete with discounted licensing, credit, and training—everything a research department needs to start using cloud computing to support their researchers and control the costs.

Learn more about RONIN by watching this video or checking out these webinars. Get started by contacting your account manager or completing this contact form.

* This limited offer is available to US research universities with active computationally intensive research funded by the National Institutes of Health, as indicated through RePORTER. Offer expires 6/30/2021.