The 176th R-CCS Cafe - part 2

In modern science there is a need for developing extreme-scale computing infrastructures towards support for workflows with complex computing and data requirements. In order to simplify the experience of scientists using the infrastructure and minimizing the need for large movements of data, a combination of capability, throughput as well as interactive computing services have to be offered in a transparent way. In this talk, I will show how CSCS is improving its service portfolio, which is rooted in traditional supercomputing operations, towards a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that use many of the virtues of native cloud computing. Key technologies such as interactive notebooks, containers for software deployment and their orchestration, as well as web-accessible supercomputing infrastructure will be discussed. I will review recent experiences of CSCS in covering needs of the User Lab (traditional supercomputing operations), the Swiss Institute of Particle Physics (CHIPP, the Swiss part of the World LHC Computing Grid), as well the Materials Cloud platform and the HBP Collaboratory (a platform of the Human Brain Project). Looking at this from a SOA point of view is allowing us to evolve our supercomputing systems to meet the needs of modern science.