IT4Innovations – website
Hosting institution: VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava
IT4Innovations operates nationally unique state-of-the-art supercomputing resources and provides open access to those resources on the basis of scientific excellence. Supercomputing and high performance computing (HPC) is the 3rd pillar of science, besides theory and experiments. In recent years, this pillar has been, and continues to be of utmost importance and is often the only practical option, especially when an experiment is not feasible. Computer simulations are often cheaper, faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly than experiments. IT4Innovations’ portfolio of services is split into core services and added value services. The core services consist of provisioning an optimized HPC environment, in particular core hours of supercomputer time, software license hours, and compute-oriented storage capacity. The added value services are based on the expertise accumulated at IT4Innovations and include user and application support, code enabling and optimization, training activities, dedicated HPC research, and a contact point for international HPC infrastructures. IT4Innovations, CESNET and CERIT-SC form the main pillars of the e-infrastructure of the Czech Republic and serve as the base layer for other research infrastructures in the country. Thanks to IT4Innovations, the Czech Republic has access to state-of-the-art HPC infrastructure and expertise. As a member of the prestigious pan-European e-infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), IT4Innovations also enables access for Czech researchers to all services provided by this e-infrastructure and opens numerous opportunities for international collaboration. IT4Innovations has a rich international network and actively contributes to research in HPC related areas.
Future development
IT4Innovations operates the supercomputers Anselm (Rpeak 94 TFLOPS) and Salomon (Rpeak 2000 TFLOPS) and runs a state-of-the-art data centre providing ample space and power, with unique hot water cooling with heat recuperation. In 2015, the Salomon supercomputer was the largest Intel(r) Xeon Phi(tm) coprocessor-based cluster in Europe. IT4Innovations actively develops and widens its service portfolio, including its own HPC related research, to access new research areas and user groups. Further development of IT4Innovations presumes regular upgrades of the systems to continue the excellent service to users as well as extension and development of training and visualisation capacities of the centre.
Socio-economic impact
HPC is globally recognized as an important innovation enabler in research as well as industry. Supercomputing simulations are often the only way to understand complex problems and to solve grand scientific challenges. The expertise and capacity of IT4Innovations supports multiple R&D areas which have significant socio-economic impact, e.g. in flood prevention, crash tests, drug design, chemical catalysis, and personalised medicine.
