Building a Shared Resource HPC Center Across University Schools and Institutes: A Case Study

Over the past several years, The George Washington University has recruited a significant number of researchers in a wide variety of domains requiring the availability of advanced computational resources. We discuss the challenges and obstacles encountered planning and establishing a first-time high performance computing center at the university level and present a set of solutions that will be useful for any university developing a fledgling high performance computing center. We focus on justification and cost model, strategies for determining anticipated use cases, planning appropriate resources, staffing, user engagement, and metrics for gauging success.