References: the LRZ case

The following slides -from a presentation given a few months ago- highlight perfectly what I consider a very good global HPC academic provider. It is what we should be looking at, and mimic -as we already explained, what I believe could be applied to Lemoniz abandoned nuclear power plant.

Introducing IT Service Management at the LRZ

However let me argue the real need to be supported by Industry, specially the local one. Lemoniz is extremely important in terms of Physical Security, but there is more that I will try to argue in future posts. All related posts here.

VideoGames industry education in the Basque

"The Bilbao Chamber of Comerse and DigipPen USA are honoured to present DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe-Bilbao, a project the goal of which is to boost a new strategic sector in Euskadi: Videogames and Virtual Reality. To this end, we will create high-performance training and research in videogame programming and design and which will open its doors in 2010."

Via BasqueResearch.com and Techflash.

Applications for fall 2011 now open. See their website and follow the European Hub on Facebook.

This is indeed a good reference for us. Well done!

Cerfacs as a reference

I would like to thank Prof. Enrique Zuazua from the BCAMATH. The acclaimed maths professor has -during a recent conference- named Cerfacs as an example for the Basque Country.

I totally agree with his point of view: it is time to build our own Software, our own research. An HPC center is not build upon the pieces of the rest: these centers are made to CREATE. An HPC center will never go far if they only thing about TOP500.

I think there are great chances for creating such center in here (based on a public-private status) and promoting the local research in our industry by proposing them challenges, and excellence in education as Prof Enrique explained. For instance, our industry is based on mechanics, therefore perhaps the Basque could in parallel develop integrated solutions for datacentres.

One more time, a big round of applause for Prof Zuazua.

Data Center as Critical Success Factor

"Small and Medium Companies, Universities, Government and Research Centres and Companies should create a shared datacenter and working areas."

The datacentre is the kick-off HPC infrastructure. It is as critical as building a road or connecting with high speed trains or airplanes. We should stop creating small, unsafe, dangerous and unproperly PUE-ed small datacentre desings: it is time to consolidate and securize such infrastructures around the basque area. It is time to create a building infrastructure able to provide uptime, power, security at all leves, for all the science, enterprise, industry and educational actors. It is time to consolidate and build something useful and safe. The start of a HPC-Hub could be Lemoniz: better that it may seen as I already said in another post. Nevertheless I want to introduce here another good practice from Europe. Germany what a suprise.

The pictures show one of my favourites datacentres design the LRZ.

Here are the building offices and the impressive cube at the end is the datacentre itself. Each floor in there is a level of service. Elevators at the sides, stairs, from bottom to top each floor is one service: water and cooling, networking, power, backup and machine room at the top room, a space without columns (see the last picture). Impresive well design. The building includes a control room kinda space control room. Others datacentres in Europe also include such infrastructure.

Learning from Others (Part I)

Having the most powerful supercomputer of the world means nothing if one does not have strong partners -and specially industrial ones- to justify the bill as part of the production chain of critical industrial solutions beyond the pure scientific-classical approach.

This is the case of a top-class German center: "Center for Computer Applications in AeroSpace Science and Engineering" also known as C²A²S²E. The center has developed a strong collaboration not only with universities and scientist, but with the world-class aircraft constructor Airbus. Airbus is known for having contracts with other leading computing centers, what makes one think that the demand of computing power is critical in their future plans.

The Basque Region is one of the leading spanish regions in aerospace. ITP, Sener, CTAero are companies that were born here. It is remarkable interesting the case of Aernnova previously known as Gamesa, that has signed an important contract to supply parts for next Airbus models. With an awesome amount of work and money arranged for the next years, Aernnova or any of their partners could undoubtfully start a new kind of business with Aircraft constructors: It is always good to diversify. The local government could also knock on their door and build something greener for the Basque community. It is obvious that highest security constraints must be met and therefore the best analysts must be hired. A good model it is there, let's learn from it, looking at ourselves and the future we want to build.