With the volume of data generated from research increasing rapidly and affecting a wider variety of fields and disciplines than ever before, the requirement for transferring large volumes of data is now widespread. One of the ways that institutions are aiming to satisfy this need is to reduce the network impediments that affect the end-to-end speed at which research data can be transferred between the lab, computational and storage facilities.

The University of Southampton, as a member of the Science & Engineering South Consortium (SES) and in partnership with Jisc and Diamond Light Source, has been running a pilot project – the Research Data Transfer Zone. The pilot has demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce download time, offering a reduction of days to hours, eliminating some of the more ad-hoc transfer methods, such as portable hard drives. Most importantly, this capability has been developed with researchers in mind, so should be easy-to-use.

Other potential benefits may include the ability to setup and monitor experiments remotely, streaming data directly to off-site HPC facilities. This would save both the time and cost involved with travelling to a research facility and promote equipment/experimental setup as a service at participating facilities.

On 18th April The University of Southampton will be holding an event to raise awareness of the RDTZ, display some of its recent achievements, and explore potential to expand the zone. The afternoon will include talks from Diamond, Jisc and Southampton researchers, with a panel session to close the event. We hope to see you there.

Please note that there may be a AV team present at this event. By registering for this event you agree that any photographs or video taken may be used for promotional purposes by The University of Southampton and the Science and Engineering South Consortium only.