The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has flexible computing resources of interest to faculty and researchers, from virtual computing labs, specialized software, and access to the high-performance Duke Computer Cluster.

The Research Computing team is available throughout your Duke career to provide support and consultation. Also note, many schools and departments already provide computational and storage resources, be sure to check with your local IT support for access and guidance.

 

E-mail & Calendaring is easy at Duke. Most faculty use Office365 for email and calendaring, however, some departments use other services. You should contact local IT staff for details.  

Phone services are managed by OIT for the university and health system including desk phones and integrated communications like chat and teleconferencing.

Software is available to download from a library of more than 100 software packages for free or at a steep discount. 

Websites can be self-published using WordPress. Sites@Duke is Duke’s no-charge WordPress website service for Duke faculty, staff and students. The university is transitioning from Sakai to Canvas, a learning management tool for faculty and students. Note: fee based services are also available for advanced site design and support. 

Collaboration and Communication are offered to support the Duke community: Surveys using Qualtrics software, file sharing and storage using up to 50GB of cloud storage on Box, and conferencing through Zoom and Microsoft Teams. 

The Innovation Co-Lab offers technical training through the Roots program and studio space for digital modeling and fabrication on West Campus and at the Ruby. 

At-home computing is convenient for many faculty. If you are connecting to Duke's network from off campus, we recommend that you use Duke's virtual private network for security. Or use Eduroam at member universities. 

Duke's IT Security Office provides guidance on how to keep your devices and data safe. Check the IT Security website for recommendations on anti-virus software, passwords and the latest phishing alerts, as well as suggestions on working securely from off-campus. Make sure to review Duke policies regarding file sharing.

Zoom is the recommended video-conferencing tool at Duke for holding live class sessions and online office hours. Zoom supports a variety of pedagogies including active learning, lectures, discussion and group work. Sign up for a free Duke Zoom account. Follow the Getting Started Guide to learn how to authenticate your Zoom app for the best Zoom experience at Duke. Be sure to follow OIT security recommendations to keep your meeting secure and free from disruption. 

Academic Media Services is available to assist with capturing lectures and events, converting captured media to other formats or distributing media, and can offer technical consultation and resources.

Web Conferencing and Collaboration is easy at Duke. You can access tools for: self publishing, survey software, online web conferencing and collaboration tools.

 

Duke virtual and physical computing labs are available to all Duke faculty, students, and staff. Virtual resources have renewable semester long reservations. 

Researcher quick tips for using general IT resources:

  • Use Research Toolkits to create and define online groups for use of IT resources for groups or projects (avoids personally ‘owning’ the resource)
  • Request a Sponsored Account for external collaborators that may need access to some of your Duke resources

Virtual Machines for Research, called RAPID VMs, are provided to Duke faculty (or designees) automatically with an allocation of 4 CPU cores, 40GB of RAM, and 200GB of storage. VMs are self-service and managed through a web interface. 

Duke Computer Cluster is a high throughput, high performance LINUX cluster for research support. At present, there are over 20,000 CPU cores, and 350 GPUs.  Access is provided by the University for common use and researchers can purchase dedicated nodes for their research. Storage is provided for data under analysis. 

Data Commons storage can be used in conjunction with Research Computing services or stand-alone as archival storage of research data. It is $80 per TB per year.

The Research Computing team provides support and consultation including: training, grant support, and partners with researchers to develop new tools. Email rescomputing@duke.edu for more information.

Duke's Protected Network for Research is a resource for analysis and storage of sensitive research data. Fees may apply.

 Researcher quick tips for data security:

For more information about working with sensitive data, contact the Duke IT Security office at security@duke.edu, or the OR&I Protected Data team at researchdatasupport@duke.edu