NeSI

What NeSI does

NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) is the national high-performance computing platform for New Zealand's research sector, providing shared computational infrastructure, data services, and consultancy to universities, Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), and government agencies. Founded in 2011 and historically hosted by the University of Auckland under a Crown Funding Agreement with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), NeSI operated a merit-based allocation model in which research projects apply for HPC resources through a quarterly review process managed via the my.nesi.org.nz portal. Its customer base was effectively closed to the New Zealand research community and included named users such as AgResearch, NIWA, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Plant & Food Research, the University of Auckland, the University of Otago, Genomics Aotearoa, and Mātai Medical Research Institute.

NeSI's core technology stack centers on national HPC clusters — historically Mahuika (Milan CPU nodes) and Māui (operated jointly with NIWA) — augmented by GPU resources for accelerated computing, WEKA high-performance storage, the Slurm job scheduler, and Globus-based large-scale data transfer. In May 2025, NeSI launched a refreshed HPC3 + AI platform with WEKA storage and AI-optimized GPU nodes, replacing the legacy Mahuika and Māui clusters and adding explicit AI/ML workload support. Supporting services include the OnDemand interactive web interface (JupyterLab, RStudio, VS Code, MATLAB, Virtual Desktop), Research Software Engineering and Data Science consultancy, training programs delivered through ResBaz Aotearoa and The Carpentries, and the Freezer long-term tape archive. NeSI also co-developed the Flexible HPC cloud-native platform with AgResearch, operationalized in 2022, providing multi-tenant compute and data services to CRI users.

On July 1, 2025, all NeSI roles, services, and technologies were integrated into REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand), a separate Crown-owned company that operates New Zealand's national research and education network connecting to 120+ global networks. Post-integration, NeSI continues to operate as a brand and service line within REANNZ, with funding flowing from MBIE and institutional service subscriptions. Its revenue model is therefore hybrid: Crown appropriation covers core infrastructure, supplemented by subscription-based service agreements with partner institutions priced through the NeSI Service Subscriptions framework. Distribution is direct and institutionally mediated, with no commercial or international customers disclosed.

Name

NeSI

Legal name

New Zealand eScience Infrastructure

Website

https://nesi.org.nz

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

NeSI is New Zealand's national high-performance computing platform, providing shared HPC infrastructure, data services, and consultancy to universities and Crown Research Institutes. As of July 2025, it operates as a service line within the Crown-owned company REANNZ.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

High Performance Computing Infrastructure

NAICS

Computer Facilities Management Services (541513), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Rental & Leasing (7377)

akta.pro primary industry

HCI & Integrated Systems (Compute + Storage) (HDABADAD)

Keywords

• High performance computing
• Research data analytics
• Computational research infrastructure
• Research software engineering
• Data storage services

Headquarters

HQ city

Auckland

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Infrastructure, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Crown Funding: NeSI is a collaboration of institutions including Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland, working in partnership with the NZ Government. Funding provided through Crown Funding Agreement. As of July 1, 2025, integrated into REANNZ as a crown-owned company.
2. Service Subscriptions: NeSI offers service subscriptions to research institutions through Contracts & Billing arrangements. Pricing documentation available at docs.nesi.org.nz. Allocation classes include Merit-based allocations for qualifying research projects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) designs, builds and operates a national platform of shared high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, data analytics, storage and consultancy services for New Zealand's research community. It provides CPU/GPU compute, data management, and research software engineering support to researchers, universities, and Crown Research Institutes.

Product overview

NeSI (New Zealand eScience Infrastructure) operates as a national research computing platform providing integrated HPC, data analytics, and consultancy services to New Zealand researchers. The core offering consists of the HPC3 platform (with CPU and GPU compute resources), WEKA-based high-performance storage, and the Freezer long-term archive. Supporting services include OnDemand for interactive computing, Globus for data transfer, the my.nesi portal for account management, and a Consultancy Service staffed by Research Software Engineers and Data Science Engineers. Training programs cover HPC fundamentals through partnerships with ResBaz Aotearoa and The Carpentries. On July 1 2025, NeSI integrated into REANNZ but continues operating under this branding.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• High Performance Computing (HPC) Platform National HPC infrastructure providing computational resources for research. The new HPC3 platform replaces Mahuika with WEKA storage, offering CPU and GPU compute nodes for academic and research workloads.
• Consultancy Services Research Software Engineers and Data Science Engineers provide computational consulting to improve research productivity, code performance, software engineering practices, and reproducibility.
• Data Services Storage and data management infrastructure including WEKA high-performance storage, Freezer long-term tape storage, Nearline archival storage, and databases. Supports data migration, recovery, and lifecycle management.
• Training Digital research skills training including HPC fundamentals, Linux command line, Python, R, research data management, and software environment modules. Partners with ResBaz Aotearoa for week-long skill sessions.
• Flexible HPC Platform Cloud-native, multi-tenant advanced research computing platform designed in partnership with AgResearch. Supports multi-tenant operations, developer operators, and eResearch platforms.
• OnDemand Interactive Interface Web-based portal providing interactive access to HPC resources without command-line use. Includes JupyterLab, RStudio, VS Code, MATLAB, Virtual Desktop, and Slurm job submission.
• Research Developer Cloud Cloud-based development environment for researchers, part of service subscriptions providing flexible compute resources beyond traditional HPC batch processing.
• Globus Data Transfer Enterprise-grade data transfer service for moving large datasets between NeSI storage and external endpoints. Supports automated transfers, sync operations, and share collections.
• Freezer Long-Term Storage Long-term tape-based storage service replacing Nearline, providing archival storage for research data with single copy redundancy.
• my.nesi.org.nz User Portal User portal for managing NeSI accounts, project applications, allocation requests, and notification preferences.

Quantifiable outcome

• Provided HPC access enabling climate change flooding risk research using Monte Carlo approach generating thousands of probabilistic flood maps on NeSI platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network New Zealand)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2025On July 1, 2025, NeSI integrated into REANNZ as a crown-owned company. All roles, services, and technologies of NeSI became part of REANNZ, combining national HPC infrastructure with research and education network capabilities. REANNZ operates NZ's national research and education network connecting to 120+ networks globally.
• AgResearchcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership announced in 2021 to design and deliver a future-focused eResearch Platform. Multi-tenant, cloud-native platform bringing together NeSI and AgResearch expertise, computing and data resources, scientific pipelines, and workflows. Shared capabilities improve mutual support networks for platform operations, user support, training, and community-building. Flexible HPC platform became operational in 2022.
• Research Software Alliance (ReSA)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerNeSI joined ReSA as an Organizational Member in April 2023. Expands ability to participate in international efforts advancing research software ecosystem. Enables access to decision makers, key influencers, and best practice sharing. Collaboration history includes hosting presentations at eResearch NZ, contributing to ReSA's People Roadmap Report, and participating in International Funders Workshop.
• Genomics AotearoasecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of eResearch NZ 2024 conference alongside NeSI and REANNZ. Collaborative partnership for advancing genomics research infrastructure and computational capabilities in New Zealand.
• RSE-AUNZ (Research Software Engineering Association of Australia and New Zealand)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerNeSI serves as a founding/organizing member. Mercedes Randell, Research Communities Advisor, serves as Steering Committee Co-Chair. NeSI organizes the annual NZRSE Conference endorsed by RSE-AUNZ. Community has 489 members across Australia and New Zealand. Working towards 2023-2025 strategy goals including community building, raising RSE profile, fostering diversity, and formalizing as incorporated association.
• ARDC (Australian Research Data Commons)secondaryGTM or Marketing PartnerCo-hosting quarterly AU/NZ Carpentries Community Calls. Collaborative efforts in digital research skills training and Carpentry instructor community building across the Tasman.
• The CarpentriessecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal program teaching foundational computational and data management skills to researchers. NeSI supports Carpentry workshops, instructor training, and community building in New Zealand. Annual Carpentry Connect events and instructor training sessions delivered through partnerships.
• NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHPC platform partnership for Māui cluster. NIWA hosts Platform Systems Engineering team at Wellington offices. Joint hiring for platform engineering roles. NIWA-owned projects maintain Māui access until platform decommissioning.
• University of AucklandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead institution partner hosting NeSI headquarters. Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland employs NeSI staff and provides administrative infrastructure. Lead organizer of ResBaz Aotearoa and NZRSE Conference.
• University of OtagosecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution in ResBaz Aotearoa collaboration. University of Otago researchers use NeSI HPC for computational chemistry and bioinformatics. Hosting Bioinformatics Spring School 2022 in collaboration with Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI.
• Victoria University of WellingtonsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution collaborating on ResBaz Aotearoa. Co-organizer of NZRSE Conference activities. Emily O'Riordan, Lecturer in AI, participates in Women in HPC Australasia Chapter events.
• Manaaki Whenua Landcare ResearchsecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCrown Research Institute partner. Contributed to Macro View research data characterization initiative. Brent Martin, Senior Data Scientist, serves on NZRSE Conference organizing committee.
• Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner institution. Janet Stacey, Digital Sciences Engineer, serves as RSE-AUNZ Steering Committee Member. Contributes to Carpentry Connect and RSE conference community activities.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Pawsey Supercomputing Centre: Australia's national HPC facility providing supercomputing and data services to researchers. Highly comparable as a government-funded, national-scale research computing platform serving academic and government researchers across multiple disciplines.
• National Computational Infrastructure (NCI Australia): Australia's other national HPC facility operated by ANU. Like NeSI, it provides high-performance computing, storage, and data services to Australian researchers under a national research infrastructure mandate with government backing.
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC): ARDC coordinates national research data infrastructure across Australia and is NeSI's direct counterpart across the Tasman. Both organizations fund and operate shared eResearch platforms, training programs (e.g., The Carpentries), and community initiatives like NeSI's joint AU/NZ Carpentries Community Calls.
• Digital Research Alliance of Canada: Canada's national HPC and research data infrastructure provider (formerly Compute Canada). Operates an analogous model of national coordination, merit-based compute allocation, and partnership with universities and government research institutes.
• Jülich Supercomputing Centre: Germany's national supercomputing centre operating flagship HPC systems for European research. Closely comparable as a government-research national HPC facility providing compute, storage, and user support to academic and scientific users.
• EPCC (Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre): UK national HPC provider operating ARCHER2 and other HPC services for UK academic research. Comparable as a national research computing service combining HPC operations, training, consultancy, and storage under government/academic funding.
• SNIC (Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing): Sweden's national HPC infrastructure coordinating academic supercomputing across multiple centres. Provides national-level compute allocation, storage, and user support comparable in structure to NeSI's mandate.
• CSC (IT Center for Science, Finland): Finnish national HPC and eResearch infrastructure provider offering Mahti/Puhti supercomputers and data management services. Operates an analogous national-mandate, merit-based allocation model for universities and research institutes.

Others

• Internet2: US research and education network organisation analogous to REANNZ (NeSI's parent post-July 2025). Not an HPC operator itself but closely related as a research-network provider often paired with HPC services in national eResearch ecosystems.
• GÉANT: Pan-European research and education networking organisation that, like NeSI's parent REANNZ, provides high-speed network infrastructure for research communities. Not a direct HPC competitor but represents the network-layer counterpart that NeSI is now paired with via REANNZ integration.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/NeSI_NZ
• GitHubgithub.com/nesi
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/new-zealand-escience-infrastructure

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NeSI