Technical and Consulting Services
We provide technical consultation to our customers and work with them to deploy customised and trusted networking solutions. We specialise in end-to-end data movement network design and troubleshooting which is documented extensively in the Fasterdata knowledge base. We are specialists in the design and implementation of:
The Science DMZ Architecture and Security
The Science DMZ design pattern is accepted as best practice for connecting high-performance data-intensive science resource to wide area science networks. In addition, the Science DMZ provides a framework for securing these assets in a performant way - this is critically important as data sets continue to grow and science collaborations become more distributed. A Science DMZ allows for the… Read More
Data Transfer Nodes
Data Transfer Nodes, or DTNs, are dedicated systems (typically but not always Linux servers) deployed and configured specifically for transferring data over networks. DTNs are an important part of a Science DMZ, and are the place where data transfer applications run - they are therefore the place where the “user interface” to the Science DMZ resides, since most users interact with a Science… Read More
perfSONAR
perfSONAR is a critical component of the Science DMZ - without perfSONAR, it would be very difficult to detect and diagnose the performance problems which inevitably arise in complex network-based workflows, and to do the necessary performance engineering work to ensure that science networks remain in good working order as effective scientific tools. perfSONAR is several things - it is a software… Read More
Data transfer: Tools and Platforms
Data transfer software is the primary user interface to most Science DMZ deployments, and runs on the DTNs. A variety of individual data transfer tools exist, as well as sophisticated data transfer platforms with data portal integration, APIs, workflow management capabilities, and so forth. Several are documented on the Fasterdata knowledge… Read More
Modern Research Data Portals
Data portals provide a way for scientists to search for, discover, access, download, analyze, and publish scientific data. They are incredibly valuable for large collaborations, research groups, and indeed for entire fields. Historically, a science data portal consisted of little more than a web server, a database, and some storage - a web browser provided the graphical interface for the portal… Read More
