Access to e-Infrastructure
Important information for users of and applicants for the grid, cloud, hadoop and beehub infrastructure at SARA.
Many researchers in the Netherlands have become familiar with the BiG Grid e-Infrastructure over the past six years. The access to the e-Infrastructure (grid, cloud, hadoop, etc.) has been organized through the BiG Grid project. SARA, Nikhef, CIT-RUG and Philips Research have been instrumental in operating the e-Infrastructure and providing various kinds of support to researchers.
SARA, which is expected to be part of SURF from January 2013, will be responsible for the e-Infrastructure from January 1, 2013, since the BiG Grid project will end at 31 December 2012. We will briefly explain the most important changes for researchers who want to apply for access to the national e-infrastructure.
Application procedure
The most visible change for researchers applying for access to the e-Infrastructure will be the actual application procedure. Application for access to the e-Infrastructure will from now on be through SARA, so has been transferred from NWO to SARA. The web form will enable you to specify the details of your request on-line. Your application will be processed by SARA, which will include a technical evaluation of your request. Additional questions and notifications will be sent to you by SARA.
Information on the services
More information on the actual grid, cloud and hadoop services can be found here. In case it is not a priori clear for a researcher which service to choose, the web form has the possibility to ask for contact with SARA. One of the SARA advisors will then get in touch to assist in defining the right service(s). This will enable you to complete your web form.
In the coming weeks, SARA will update this item with more practical information on reporting, details on access procedures, etc.
Please note that the process for applications for access to the National Supercomputer (Huygens) and to the National Compute Cluster (Lisa) has not been changed: these will still go through the usual process at NWO.
In case of any further questions, please contact e-infra@sara.nl
Bron: website SURF-sara
