The France Grilles GIS organised a technical workshop from 3 to 5 June 2024 at the Lazaret in Sète, France. The main theme was Cloud infrastructures and services for scientific research, and it covered the following points:
- Services for data processing and analysis
- Sustainability and funding of services
- Integration with EOSC
- Synergy and interoperability with French e-infrastructures
- Management, structuring, and security
- Relationships with thematic research infrastructures
Key takeaways
Baptiste Grenier, Senior Service Delivery Officer and Information Security Manager at the EGI Foundation, took part in the meeting with a presentation during the “Le Cloud au niveau européen” session (the Cloud at the European level).
"Security activities, including monitoring, training, incident response, and security challenges, were highly praised for their real value. EGI is recognised as experienced, reliable, and good in these areas, making them invaluable for the new research infrastructure." Baptiste Grenier
The workshop focused on initiating the development of a new federated infrastructure for research and education in France. Participants introduced their resources and services and discussed expectations for the new structure. Key highlights included:
- European Cloud Activities: Our presentation on EGI's relevance in federated infrastructures sparked discussions about its integration with French initiatives.
- Federated Identity and Access Management (AAI): Emphasis on leveraging eduGAIN federation, and conducting investigations on using or connecting with Check-in as an AAI service.
- User Support: Highlighted as the main differentiator from commercial providers, with a suggestion for centralised user support across the infrastructure.
- Security: EGI’s security activities were praised and considered crucial for the new infrastructure.
- Data Centre Certification: Discussions on the importance of certified and labelled data centres for hosting sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements.
Overall, the workshop underscored the need for a unified approach to governance, services, and security for the proposed federated infrastructure.
About France Grilles
France Grilles offers services on a distributed computing infrastructure for scientific data processing and storage. It features a coordination team that oversees operations across this grid and cloud-based infrastructure, serving all stakeholders. The community consists of over a thousand dynamic users, eager to share knowledge and support each other. France Grilles represents France in the EGI Council through CNRS.