Workshop: Cloud services for HPC users
A twinning workshop was organized on April 19th, 2022 with the aim of exchanging best practices and approaches to provide HPC cloud services to users from academia and industry. The workshop took place in Smolenice, Slovakia.
eINFRA and experience from the Czech Republic
Experts from CESNETwere invited to share their experiences with both NCCs in this area. CESNET is an association of universities of the Czech Republic and the Czech Academy of Sciences. It operates and develops the national e-infrastructure for science, research and education which encompasses a computer network, computational grids, data storage and collaborative environment. During the workshop, representatives of the CESNET presented such topics as:
M. Ruda: Introduction, CESNET and Metacentrum: large-scale distributed computing infrastructure and services.
D. Antoš: CESNET and Metacentrum: operation and development of data storage as a part of the national infrastructure for science and research.
Cloud services as an (un)necessary part of the HPC provider portfolio – is it profitable?
Branislav Jansík from IT4Innovations and the head of the Czech competence center Tomáš Karásek presented the requirements of users for access to cloud services. It is the motivation, requirements and expectations of users, as well as the benefits and barriers from the point of view of the HPC service provider, have been the subject of a longer discussion. Participants also debated alternative platforms, "easy-access" services, microservice, HPC "market".
Both National Competence Centers plan to integrate HPC cloud services into their portfolios using the open-source platforms OpenNebula and OpenStack. CESNET representatives who have experience with both tools shared their benefits and technical support options.
The more general debate concerned in particular the issue of systematic and long-term support for the development and operation of HPC systems as a necessary component of the national research infrastructure.
Building International Cooperation in HPC: Visit to ITER Tenerife and Teide HPC 17 Jul - At the beginning of July 2025, Lucia Malíčková, representative of the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC), had the opportunity to visit the renowned technological and research institution ITER – Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables, S.A. on the island of Tenerife.
As part of the working visit, she met with the center’s director Carlos Suarez and Jesús Rodríguez Alamo to discuss opportunities for establishing cooperation in the field of high-performance computing (HPC), research, development, and innovation using advanced technological infrastructures.
Meeting with Michal Valko, expert on large language models 15 Jul - The National Supercomputing Centre and the National Competence Centre for HPC, represented by Lucia Malíčková, met with prominent Slovak scientist Michal Valko, who is among the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning. They discussed opportunities for future collaboration, with a particular focus on leveraging Slovakia’s HPC capacities to support advanced research in large language models and algorithms that require minimal human feedback.
Data, Theology and HPC: A Collaboration Seeking Paths to Understanding 8 Jul - Continuing our collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University!
The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for HPC will continue their collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University in 2025. Following a successful joint study that demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing in the analysis of religious texts, representatives of both institutions met again to identify new areas and opportunities for future joint projects.