The University Computing Centre (SRCE) proudly joined in celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Republic of Croatia's entry into the European Union. On this occasion, on June 30, 2023, we opened the doors of our data centers in Zagreb, Osijek, and Split to all interested visitors, and for those who wanted to learn more about advanced computing, we held a workshop titled "Compute with Supek and Vrančić."
Interested participants were offered guided tours of the data centers, during which they learned more about the strategic project known as the Croatian Scientific and Educational Cloud, HR-ZOO, which has received support from the Ministry of Science and Education. Its results enable the digital transformation of higher education and science in the Republic of Croatia.
The HR-ZOO project has brought about a new generation of national infrastructure for science and higher education. It is a complex and integrated environment consisting of a set of computing and storage resources located in five data centers in four university cities, interconnected by high-speed intercity links.
The total value of the HR-ZOO project amounts to nearly 26 million euros, with 85% of the funding provided by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, and the remaining 15% secured by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia.
Visitors had the opportunity to witness numerous technical systems that equip the data centers, ensuring the reliable operation of advanced ICT resources. Additionally, they explored the hub of the service network for the academic and research network CARNET, which connects data centers in Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, and Split with transmission capacities of 100 Gbit/s. They also got to see the new computing resources named after Croatian scientists – the most powerful supercomputer in Croatia, "Supek," a resource for advanced cloud computing called "Vrančić," and a resource for virtual data centers known as "Štampar."
The "Supek" supercomputer provides scientists with a high-performance computing environment, enabling research that is unattainable with standard computing equipment. High-performance computing (HPC) allows the execution of user applications with very high performance and capacity requirements for various computing resources, including processor cores, accelerators like graphics processors, memory, storage, and network connectivity. It is primarily intended for large parallel applications that demand a significant number of processor cores connected by a high-speed, low-latency network.
Advanced cloud computing "Vrančić" is designed for scientists in need of a flexible, elastic, and versatile computing resource capable of meeting the diverse requirements of various scientific fields. Many problems require years of computing and demand a computing environment that delivers substantial computational power over an extended period. This environment is referred to as advanced cloud computing, aiming to address the question of how many tasks can be completed in a given timeframe. With the "Vrančić" resource, users can run multiple instances of their software simultaneously on many different computers. What used to take weeks on a single computer can now be accomplished in just a few hours with this resource.
In addition to the data center tours, we also hosted a workshop titled "Compute with Supek and Vrančić!" This workshop introduced the SRCE Advanced Computing service, intended for researchers who use or plan to use advanced computing technologies to tackle resource-intensive challenges.
Visitors at the HR-ZOO Data Center ZG2 within the Borongaj Scientific-University Campus.
Visitors at the HR-ZOO Data Center ST.
