High-Speed Science Network Plugs Into ByteGrid's Maryland Data Center

Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), a multi-state optical transport network operated by the University of Maryland, has partnered with data center provider ByteGrid on a high-speed platform for life sciences research infrastructure.

MAX is establishing a terabit-capable point of presence in ByteGrid’s Silver Spring, Maryland, data center. The data center provider will integrate massive storage archives typically involving petabytes of data with high performance compute and network requirements. The two will provide research infrastructure to serve a burgeoning science and education community, as well as federal government entities that are expanding their presence in Montgomery County.

Both organizations will provide opportunities for high-end IT services, content and connectivity. ByteGrid’s “Maryland Connect” program will have access to all MAX services.

MAX’s network has aggregate capacity of 8.8 terabits per second. It provides high-speed access to large national and global research and education network infrastructure, including multiple 100-Gbps connections to the Internet2 network and other wide area network infrastructures.

In recent field trials, MAX successfully achieved, and hopes to eventually offer, a networking infrastructure based on 400-Gbps technology, with even higher speeds (up to 800 Gbps) planned for the future.

ByteGrid’s 214,000-square-foot Maryland data center is located within the White Oak Science Gateway and Life Sciences Village in Silver Spring. It is on the company’s flagship campus, which consists of two data center facilities (MDC1 and MDC2), encompassing 91,000 square feet of computer room floor and 9 megawatts of critical power capacity.

“MAX is pleased to be a key technology partner and establish the TeraPoP in ByteGrid’s FISMA-compliant facility in the heart of the Life Sciences Village in Silver Spring,” said Tripti Sinha, executive director of MAX. “We are committed to providing the advanced networking infrastructure required by the world’s most important research, education and scientific organizations.”

Other services will include direct connection into Amazon Web Services and an “Innovation Sandbox,” focused on ultra-high-throughput IT infrastructure solutions.