CASE STUDY: What It Really Takes to Deliver on High-Stakes R&D Projects

by | Jul 15, 2025 | Computing

[NEW CASE STUDY] For teams working on federally funded innovation efforts—whether through SBIR, STTR, or other government-backed programs—technical success is only part of the equation. Getting your prototype into a real-world, testable environment with computing systems built for deamnding environments can be a challenge all its own.

When Innovation Hits a Wall

It’s a familiar story: you’ve built powerful, purpose-driven software that shows real promise. But now the clock is ticking, and you need to deploy it in a secure, production-ready format—often on hardware that aligns with strict specs, timelines, and budget constraints for government technology solutions, aerospace, or military applications. This is where many promising projects lose momentum.

That’s exactly the situation one San Diego-based firm faced during their Phase 1 SBIR. With software that worked beautifully in development but no infrastructure to support it at scale across computing systems, they turned to Radeus Labs.

Why Infrastructure Choices Matter

What they needed wasn't just a server. It was a path forward—a way to virtualize their application, meet their program requirements, and do it all without getting sidetracked by hardware complexity or spiraling costs in virtualizing environments.

Radeus Labs stepped in with a consultative approach, helping the team define their environment, select the right hardware, and deploy a VMware-ready solution using computing systems built to support both testing and future scaling.

Real Support, Real Speed

The result? A smooth transition from prototype to proof-of-concept, completed in days—not weeks. The engineering team stayed focused on their core innovation while Radeus handled the infrastructure challenge with a custom computing solution.

Read the Full Story

If you're navigating a similar landscape, government contracts, sensitive IP, or just mission-critical R&D, you’ll want to see how this team tackled it with secure computing systms. Our new case study walks through the process, challenges, and the real-world solution that helped move the project forward.

👉 Discover how smart infrastructure choices can accelerate your next project. [Read the case study now.]

Frequently Asked Questions

How can a software prototype be turned into a deployable virtualized system?

A software prototype can be moved from a development environment into a deployable system by defining the hardware requirements, selecting an appropriate server, configuring a hypervisor and operating system, and testing the application in a production-like environment. In this case, Radeus Labs helped GET Engineering move its software from development laptops into a VMware-based hardware platform suitable for an SBIR proof-of-concept.

What hardware is needed to run a VMware-based proof-of-concept?

The right hardware depends on the application's performance, storage, operating system, and virtualization requirements. For GET Engineering, Radeus Labs configured a custom 1U GPPC server with VMware vSphere Essentials, RHEL 7.9, dual SSDs, an 8-core CPU, and on-site setup support.

How can virtualization help with an SBIR Phase 1 project?

Virtualization can help an SBIR team create a repeatable, testable environment without developing a complex hardware platform from scratch. It allows software to run inside a virtual machine on dedicated hardware, making it easier to demonstrate a working proof-of-concept, validate the application in a real-world configuration, and prepare for future production requirements.

How quickly can a custom virtualized server be deployed?

A properly configured virtualization solution can be operational very quickly when the hardware, operating system, hypervisor, and application requirements are addressed before deployment. In the GET Engineering project, the application ran successfully in the VMware environment on day one, and a new virtual instance was created in a matter of minutes.

How do you avoid overengineering hardware for an early-stage prototype?

Start with the performance and functionality needed to validate the application rather than immediately building a full production system. A cost-effective prototype can be used to prove the concept first, while leaving a clear path to more powerful production-grade hardware later. This approach can reduce unnecessary spending while still supporting future growth.

Can a prototype server be scaled to a production-ready system later?

Yes. A well-planned prototype can serve as the first step toward a production deployment. Radeus Labs provided GET Engineering with several paths forward, including a cost-effective prototype for short-term use, consulting support for deployment, and future-ready production-level server configurations.
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