- New, lower pricing for compute and storage
- New, flexible usage model
- Opportunities to share your ideas with ICDS leadership
New Pricing, Effective Now
ICDS has negotiated new, lower pricing for Roar Restricted and Roar Collab compute and storage resources. These new prices went into effect in January 2025. You can view the price list here (PSU login required).
Q: What about F&A?
A: The University will apply F&A externally funded purchases of ICDS resources. However, you’ll find that pricing for ICDS compute and storage resources are lower, even with F&A applied. While ICDS itself does not bill for F&A, the price list linked above includes F&A charges to give users a clear sense of their “out the door” costs.
Q: How are the rates for the different product offerings calculated?
A: In brief: access to compute hardware that is newer and/or more expensive to purchase or maintain (like GPUs) is more expensive than access to older or less expensive hardware. While ICDS does not operate to realize a profit, finances must be carefully balanced to accommodate staff expenses, projected utilization, and ongoing maintenance and development.
Q: I have questions about my particular situation; who can I talk to?
A: ICDS will be offering numerous opportunities to learn about the new pricing as well as the upcoming usage model. Check out our list of upcoming webinars and one-on-one sessions to learn more.
New Usage Model Available April 2025
The current ICDS service level agreement model (sometimes referred to as a “condo model”) is common among university sponsored HPC facilities. The model requires users to estimate their computation and storage needs and commit to a long term contract. This type of system does present limitations for many users:
- While you have access to your full allocation at all times, if your needs are intermittent, this capacity is wasted.
- Users must contract for a substantial amount of resources for an extended period. Researchers with smaller needs (or budgets) tried to make do with the (limited) open queue, or simply didn’t make use of HPC.
Beginning in April 2025, users will have expanded options for accessing ICDS compute and storage resources.
New Pay per Use Functionality
Beginning in April 2025, ICDS will allow users to purchase compute access on an as-needed basis.
- Potential for significant cost savings; pay only for the resources you use.
- Utilize different hardware configurations (such as GPUs) without the long term commitment of an SLA
- Better access for researchers with tighter budgets; no minimum purchases, no contract time commitment
Allocations
For those users who find value in the current model, ICDS will offer Allocations. Allocations give users immediate access to a set amount of compute resources for a term of one or more years. Please note that “bursting” will no longer be available with this type of model. If you have intermittent or “bursty” workflows, the Pay per Use option will be more economical.
Additional Changes
New “priority queues” (forthcoming) will accommodate users who need quick access to resources (for example, while debugging).
Share Your Feedback and Get Involved
ICDS relies on the input of researchers like you to develop products and services that meet the needs of HPC research practitioners. Following the recent ICDS external review (PSU login required) the new pricing structure and usage models were developed in close collaboration with faculty advisory groups. Are you interested in becoming involved with the ICDS Cyberinfrastructure Faculty Advisory Committee or Power Users Group? Do you have feedback or ideas on how to further improve ICDS services? We’d like to hear from you!