Norwich University has announced a new research center focused on virtualization, a technology expected to grab the spotlight today in light of Cisco’s much anticipated Unified Computing announcement.
Norwich University, which is based in Northfield, Vt., and offers both traditional college courses as well as Corps of Cadets training, plans to lead a consortium of about a dozen schools to advance virtualization research and teaching.
The Norwich University Advanced Computing Center (NUACC) has been funded in part via $1 million worth of products from Internet security companies. Its infrastructure includes two VMware ESX virtual clusters and a digital forensics teaching lab featuring Dell servers and desktops.
“The idea is to build a large, virtual network across the campus and across the country specifically for research and study in high-risk information assurance,” said Dr. Peter Stephenson, chairman of the computing department in the School of Business and Management, and NUACC director, in a statement.
Projects being undertaken at the center include a number focused on protecting virtualized computing environments and cloud computing from fraud, bots and other security threats. Among the projects is a Building Information Modeling study designed to explore use of secure cloud computing for the construction industry and a security effort modeled after the biological immune system.
