HPC workshop in Strasbourg

On 3 November, a workshop within the framework of EUCOR and the bwHPC initiative took place in Strasbourg. The focus was how to use virtualization in the context of High Performance Computing. Colleagues from Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, and Freiburg took part.

Photo: Marjorie Rougier

Virtualization of computing resources is a technology that has been established for the operation of "Compute-Clouds." The workshop addressed the question of whether virtualization is also adaptable for High Performance Computing. This field of computing comes with specific prerequisites, which a simple compute-cloud cannot fulfill. Scientists from Karlsruhe and the HPC competency center in Freiburg have developed a solution that they presented for their colleagues in France. Strasbourg is contemplating similar ways of offering their high performance computing resources to researchers in this way.

The discussion of technical details showed that the concepts used are very much related. In order to ensure continuous exchange of ideas and possible solutions to problems, a subsequent meeting in 2016 has been arranged.