Projects

Development and integration activities in Compute Platform workpackage, with aim of AAI in clouds.

Info:

• To foster the deployment of the platforms that enable mobility of people and seamless access to services by promoting the establishment of identity federations interconnected via eduGAIN, creating awareness of privacy and security issues and spreading eduroam by: sharing experiences, carrying out training and making available shared infrastructure to ease the process in the partner world regions.
• To develop a model for inter-operation between NREN cloud application markets of participating world regions, based on cloud provisioning and taking advantage of applications developed and run by NRENs across different continents to create a model for a worldwide application market for collaboration tools and services
• To seek consensus among participating world regions on the importance of interoperability of real-time applications and work towards the adoption of standards such as those proposed by the Global CEO Forum to promote the creation of a worldwide environment for these applications.
• To foster the collaborative work of Global Science Communities by actively promoting the participation of Latin American and other regions’ researchers in European Commission Calls and those of other international funding agencies with high impact in the participating regions and other networking activities.

In the context of the MAGIC project, CESNET will offer their expertise in the area of group management and federated access. CESNET has manpower in WP1, WP2, WP3:

• WP1 Management
• WP2 Platforms for Mobility - To promote, coordinate and support the effort to create in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia an authorisation and authentication infrastructure (AAI) for academic services and processes
• WP3 Cloud provisioning and Groupware Standards

The goal of AARC is to address technical and functional gaps that prevent the interoperability of existing R&E AAIs. AARC objectives are:

• Deliver the design of an integrated cross-discipline AAI framework, built on federated access production services (eduGAIN)
• Increase the uptake of federated access within different research communities
• Pilot critical components of the proposed integrated AAI where existing production services do not address user needs
• Validate the results of both the JRA and SA by engaging with the research communities

In the context of the AARC project, CESNET will offer their expertise in the area of group management and federated access for non-web applications. CESNET has manpower in JRA1 and SA1:

• JRA1 Architectures for an integrated and interoperable AAI - Identify and overcome technical, organisational and legal obstacles that hinder seamless interoperability and user experience among existing AAIs.
• SA1 Pilots on the integrated AAI - The work in SA1 will be driven by use-cases that will be selected as a result of the work of JRA1 and in consultation with the user communities and e-Infrastructure providers. The pilots will have to demonstrate that the solutions proposed by JRA1 and NA3 are effective in addressing the requirements of both users communities and different service providers (commercial and non-commercial) in terms of usability, security, reliability and provided functionalities. Some of the SA1 work will start in parallel with JRA1 and NA3, based on the already known requirements; the other part of the work will commence when the interim results of both JRA1 and NA3 are available. SA1 feedback from the pilots will be taken into account for NA3 and JRA1 to refine their final results.

 http://www.egi.eu/news-and-media/newsfeed/news_2015_002.html

INDIGO-DataCloud (INtegrating Distributed data Infrastructures for Global ExplOitation) aims at developing a data/computing platform targeted at scientific communities, deployable on multiple hardware, and provisioned over hybrid (private or public) e-infrastructures. The expertise of the INDIGO consortium builds on the body of work of several research groups with significant and unrivalled experience in middleware development for production-class distributed e-infrastructures. The quality of their achievements is demonstrated by the results of previous projects and initiatives carried out in Europe across the past ten years of collaborations on scientific computing based on different consolidated and emerging paradigms (HPC, Grid and Cloud).
In INDIGO, key European developers, resource providers, e-infrastructures and scientific communities have joined to ensure the successful exploitation and sustainability of the project outcome. INDIGO will develop and deliver software components allowing execution of applications on Cloud and Grid based
infrastructures, as well as on HPC clusters. The project will extend existing PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions, allowing public and private e-infrastructures, including those provided by EGI, EUDAT, PRACE and Helix Nebula, to integrate their existing services, make them available through AAI services compliant with GEANT’s interfederation policies, thus guaranteeing transparency and trust in the provisioning of such services.
In Cloud computing, both the public and private sectors are already offering Cloud resources as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). However, there are numerous areas of interest to scientific communities where Cloud computing uptake is currently lacking, especially at the PaaS and SaaS (Software as a Service) levels. INDIGO therefore aims at developing tools and platforms based on Open Source solutions addressing scientific challenges in the Cloud computing, storage and network areas. A key strength and benefit of the INDIGO consortium, for both the scientific and industrial sectors, is the potential to create a new sustainable Cloud competence in Europe for PaaS, similar to what OpenNebula or OpenStack have done for IaaS.

Work package 3 Software Management and Pilot Services (WP3, SA) (WP deputy leader: CESNET) will support service activities, that in INDIGO are mainly oriented to guarantee a high quality software management, and a successful deployment of pilot services. We participate in:

• T3.2 Software release and maintenance
• T3.3 Pilot services

Work package 4 Resource Virtualization (WP4, JRA) focuses on virtualizing local compute, storage and networking resources (IaaS) and on providing those resources in a standardized, reliable and performing way to remote customers or to higher level federated services, building virtualized site independent platforms. With higher-level services we mainly, but not exclusively, refer to the platform services provided by WP5. We participate in:

• T4.3 Network Virtualization (CESNET is the leader) -  Milestones for the networking area:
  • M4.18: Prototype implementation for local virtual networks
  • M4.1: Results of cross-sites virtual network solution evaluation
  • M4.20: Providing results of first SDN orchestration evaluation
  • M4.21: Proposals and pilot versions of tools for using SDN across sites

Work package 5 PaaS Platform Development (WP5, JRA). Design and implementation of a PaaS layer allowing scientific communities to exploit, in a powerful and high-level way, several heterogeneous computing and data e-infrastructure such as: IaaS Cloud, Helix Nebula, EGI Grid, EGI Federated Cloud, PRACE, HPC, EUDAT, etc. It will be possible to process large amounts of data and to exploit the efficient storage and preservation technologies and infrastructure already available in the European e-infrastructure, with the appropriate mechanisms to ensure security and privacy. We participate in:

• T5.2 Security and Authorization (Lead Partner: INFN; deputy: CESNET)

 http://www.egi.eu/news-and-media/newsfeed/news_2015_002.html

EGI-Engange project continues the transition towards the sustainable pan-European e-Infrastrusture initiated within series of EGEE*/EGI* projects through support of Grids of high-performance and high-throughput computing.

The mission of EGI-Engage is to accelerate the implementation of the Open Science Commons vision, where researchers from all disciplines have easy and open access to the innovative digital services, data, knowledge and expertise they need for their work. The Open Science Commons is grounded on three pillars: the e-Infrastructure Commons, an ecosystem of key services; the Open Data Commons, where any researcher can access, use and reuse data; and the Knowledge Commons, in which communities have shared ownership of knowledge and participate in the co-development of software and are technically supported to exploit state-of-the-art digital services. EGI-Engage will expand the capabilities offered to scientists (e.g. improved cloud or data services) and the spectrum of its user base by engaging with large Research Infrastructures (RIs), the long-tail of science and industry/SMEs. The main engagement instrument will be a network of eight Competence Centres, where National Grid Initiatives (NGIs), user communities, technology and service providers will join forces to collect requirements, integrate community-specific applications into state-of-the-art services, foster interoperability across e-Infrastructures, and evolve services through a user-centric development model. The project will also coordinate the NGI efforts to support the long-tail of science by developing ad hoc access policies and by providing services and resources that will lower barriers and learning curves.

MetaCentrum represents Czech national grid environment and provides all necessary services to allow seamless integration of national resources and local end users into pan-European grid infrastructure.

We participate in the following EGI-Engage's Work Packages:

• WP3/JRA1.1 – AAI, JRA1.4 – Operational tools
• WP4/JRA2.2 – Fed Cloud
• WP5/SA1.3 – Platforms operation
• WP6/SA2.1 – Training, SA2.2 – User support, SA2.3 – ELIXIR ESFRI Competence Centre, SA2.4 – BBMRI Competence Centre, SA2.5 – MoBrain Competence Centre

http://www.egi.eu/

Title:

EGI InSPIRE project continues the transition towards the sustainable pan-European e-Infrastrusture initiated within series of EGEE projects through support of Grids of high-performance and high-throughput computing. The project will provide a central coordinating organinisation necessary to integrate and interoperate individual national grid infrastructures (NGIs), collect requirements and provide user-support for the current and new users and define, verify and integrate within the Unified Middleware Distribution (UMD), the middleware from external providers needed to access the e-Infrastructure.

MetaCentrum goals:

Primary goal of MetaCentrum is to provide all required services as grid operations, monitoring, and helpdesk system at the national level thus allowing incorporation of Czech grid environment into EGI ecosystem and simultaneously enable Czech researchers to become users of the European wide EGI infrastructure.

http://www.egi.eu/

The European Middleware Initiative is a collaboration of the three major middleware providers in Europe, ARC, gLite and UNICORE, and other consortia. EMI aims to deliver a consolidated set of middleware components for deployment in EGI, PRACE and other Distributed Computing Infrastructures (DCIs), extend the interoperability between grids and other computing infrastructures and establish a sustainable model to maintain and evolve the middleware, fulfilling the requirements of the user communities.

MetaCentrum goals:

MetaCentrum goal within EMI project is to contribute for the development of specific components of the planned UMD middleware distribution by provision of expertise of development and maintenance of code related to specific services (as logging and bookkeeping, and others).

http://www.eu-emi.eu/

CHAIN project aims to coordinate and leverage current grid efforts and their results with a vision of a harmonised and optimised interaction model for e-Infrastructure and specifically Grid interfaces between Europe and the rest of the world. The project will define a coherent operational and organisational model, where a number of EU countries/regions will possibly act, in collaboration with EGI project, as bridges/gateways to other regions and continents.

MetaCentrum goals:

The main goal for MetaCentrum will be to participate on definition of processes and rules required for building a uniform worlwide grid sustainable infrastructure.

 http://www.chain-project.eu/

The project aims to support and disseminate the best practices currently adopted in Europe and other continents, and promote and facilitate interoperability among different regional eInfrastructures. CHAIN-REDS gathers the main stakeholders of regional eInfrastructures, collectively engaged in studying and defining a path towards a global eInfrastructure ecosystem that will allow VRCs, research groups and even single researchers to access and efficiently use worldwide distributed resources (i.e. computing, storage, data, services, tools, applications). The core objective of CHAIN-REDS project is to promote, coordinate and support the effort of a critical mass of non-European eInfrastructures for Research and Education to collaborate with Europe addressing interoperability and interoperation of Grids and other Distributed Computing Infrastructures.

MetaCentrum goals:

The main goal for MetaCentrum will be to support inter-operation of Grids and other Distributed Computer Infrastructures by broadening the authentication processes. MetaCentrum will also continue its previous task from CHAIN on definition of processes and rules required for building a uniform worlwide grid sustainable infrastructure.

 http://www.chain-project.eu/

Project Moonshot is a Janet-led initiative, in partnership with the GÉANT project and others, to develop a single unifying technology for extending the benefits of federated identity to a broad range of non-Web services, including Cloud infrastructures, High Performance Computing & Grid infrastructures and other commonly deployed services including mail, file store, remote access and instant messaging.

MetaCentrum goals:

The goal of the technology is to enable the management of access to a broad range of services and applications, using a single technology and infrastructure. This is expected to significantly improve the delivery of these services by providing users with a common single sign-on, for both internal and external services. Service providers will be able to more easily offer their services to users from other organisations using a single common authentication mechanism. This will enhance the user’s experience, and reduce costs for those organisations supporting users, and delivering services to them.

http://www.project-moonshot.org/

The main aims of project are: Reinforce the impact of e-infrastructure in scientific research defining and delivering stimulating programme of educational events, including Grid School and High Performance Computing courses. Broaden the engagement in e-Science activities and collaborations both geographically and across disciplines.

MetaCentrum goals:

MetaCentrum is actively involved in local solving of common aims.

http://www.epikh.eu/

The aim of the project can be divided into several sub-objectives: To promote awareness in the Asian countries of the EGEE infrastructures, middleware and services by means of specific dissemination activities, such as workshops’, training events, conferences and hands-on demonstrations; to capture local e-Science user requirements in terms of resources needed, Grid services, application software, and training needs, building on results of the EGI_DS projects.

MetaCentrum goals:

MetaCentrum is expected to help to promote grid techniques and expertise into Asia region. In particular, o lead on WP3 and also the computational chemistry area, coordinating the different areas, transferring the EGEE know-how and helping to identify and establish new groups and virtual organisations. In WP5, MetaCentrum (CESNET) will contribute to the establishment and operation of the training infrastructure (the t-infrastructure) and will actively participate in training activities among the project partners and other interested bodies from the Asia Pacific region.

http://www.euasiagrid.org/

http://egee.cesnet.cz/en/info/results.html#eua

Project EGEE follows up current heavy expansion of grid technologies. EGEE is an infrastructure project whose goal is to establish and maintain European widespread grid infrastructure available to European scientific community for 24 hours a day. Project is financed by European union and by its extent it belongs to the largest grid projects ever.

MetaCentrum goals:

MetaCentrum capacities in this projects are dedicated on one side to collaboration at development, integration, testing and validation of middleware; especially advancement of logging service and related parts of middleware (including security requirements). On other side is MetaCentrum involved in activities connected with grid monitoring and provision of user support. Last but not least is participation on potential applications identification and particularly on new users training including spreading information about possibilities and usage of grid into general public.

http://egee.cesnet.cz/en/info/results.html#egee

The aim of the project is to design, develop and test-implement the MediGrid - an environment and indexed modular system of applications designed for distributed processing of data and computational tasks in the application domain of health (both in research and in practice). The system will be based on the Grid network, which will provide mechanisms of insertion and publication of specialized modules for data sharing (including real-time data sharing and teleconsultation modules), data collection and analysis. The system will include the biomedical ontology module, which will provide access to the modules and their cooperation.

MetaCentrum goals:

Proposal and pilot implementation of grid system interconnecting modules, agents and other tools with expert content offering user interface with clearly defined semantics and possibility of interactive user collaboration in the field of health service.

http://www.medigrid.cz

The European Grid Initiative (EGI) Design Study represents an effort to establish a sustainable grid infrastructure in Europe. Driven by the needs and requirements of the research community, it is expected to enable the next leap in research infrastructures, thereby supporting collaborative scientific discoveries in the European Research Area (ERA). The main foundations of EGI are the National Grid Initiatives (NGI), which operate the grid infrastructures in each country. EGI will link existing NGIs and will actively support the setup and initiation of new NGIs. The goal of the EGI Design Study (EGI_DS) is to evaluate use cases for the applicability of a coordinated effort, to identify processes and mechanisms for establishing EGI, to define the structure of a corresponding body, and ultimately to initiate the construction of the EGI organization. The EGI Design Study is a project funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme.

MetaCentrum goals:

Participate in definition of the way how Grid environment can be sustained from a long-term perspective.

http://web.eu-egi.eu/

http://egee.cesnet.cz/en/info/results.html#egi

Ithanet is a Euromediterranean network of research centres conducting molecular and clinical research of thalassaemia and related haemoglobinopathies. The consortium of Ithanet comprises all major European research institutions active in the field and a number of collaborating partner institutions from non-EU Mediterranean and Black-Sea countries. Ithanet associates 26 partners from 16 countries, including scientific and medical communities, patients and their families, and patient associations.

MetaCentrum goal:

Building of videoconferencing environment with strong support for strictly secured environments (through firewall and NATs), development of the model using VPN, new experience with medical community

http://www.ithanet.eu

GridLab will produce a set of application-oriented Grid services and toolkits providing capabilities such as dynamic resource brokering, monitoring, data management, security, information, adaptive services and more. Services are accessed using the Grid Application Toolkit (GAT). The GAT provides applications with access to various GridLab services, resources, specific libraries, tools, etc. in a way that the end-users and especially application developers can build and run applications on the Grid without needing to know details about the runtime environment in advance.

MetaCentrum goals:

In the frame of GridLab project METACentrum take part in all activities needed for building up and running extensive grid tests providing a prototype of future production grids. GridLab testbed is available for all other working groups for development, testing, evaluation and application of new components.

DataGrid is a project sponsored by European union. Its aim is to built up a computational infrastructure through widely distributed scientific communities. This infrastructure provides possibility to perform intensive computations and analyses of large shared databases with data content in the orders of hunderds TeraBytes up to PetaBytes.

METACentrum goals:

Development of Workload Management System (WMS). WMS is used for interaction of a user with GRID environment. The aim of WMS is distributed planning and management of computational resources in GRID environment. It allows GRID users to send jobs and execute them at those computational resources that match job's requirements the best. WMS optimises usage of computational resources and allows gathering of information concerning status of specific job and load of calculated results. METACentrum was responsible for the development of logging and bookkeeping service.

The CoreGRID Network of Excellence (NoE) aims at strengthening and advancing scientific and technological excellence in the area of Grid and Peer-to-Peer technologies. The project focuses primarily on research in six complementary research areas that have been selected on the basis of their strategic importance, their research challenges and the recognised European expertise to develop next generation Grid middleware, namely: knowledge & data management; programming models; system architecture; Grid information and monitoring services; resource management and scheduling; problem solving environments; tools and GRID systems.

METACentrum goals (in the frame of MU):

Leading WP5, METACentrum (in the frame of MU) mainly focuses on research in the area of grid monitoring services. The primary research objective is to study and provide general information and monitoring service for the underlying GRID management required by a Next Generation GRID.

http://www.coregrid.net