Using the PDC Cloud
What research is the PDC Cloud best suited to?
- Research projects needing cloud computing and/or cloud storage resources, particularly where scientific computing assistance from PDC’s application experts/research software engineers) would be beneficial
- Research projects whose workflows require cloud computing and/or cloud storage services to be used in conjunction with HPC resources that are in close proximity to the cloud services so there are very fast connections between the cloud services and the HPC resources (like the CPU and/or GPU partitions of the main Dardel HPC system at PDC)
- Research projects with workflows that extend beyond a single HPC centre, such as where cloud instances are used to connect HPC model simulations or data processing to external data sources
As an example, the PDC Cloud will enable researchers to run their HPC or AI workloads on resources at any National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden ( NAISS ) site and then transfer the resulting data to the PDC Cloud’s Ceph storage. Then the data can be used in tasks like post-processing, data visualisation (that is, creating images, graphs or maps to help people visualise the “meaning” of the data), or displaying aspects of the data on a website using a web application (for instance, for making weather forecast maps available to the general public).
What type of researcher is the PDC Cloud for?
The PDC Cloud can be used by any researchers who are using HPC systems or data storage for their research. However, the PDC Cloud is particularly suitable for researchers who wish to build and run their own application stacks in dedicated virtual environments, either directly on virtual machines or in a containerised environment.
What can researchers do with the PDC Cloud?
People using the PDC Cloud will be able to
- deploy domain-specific portal services,
- host research-related websites and web applications,
- connect web portals to the Dardel Ceph storage backend via the S3 storage gateway,
- run containerised applications, such as Docker and Singularity,
- run workflows that are less compute-intensive than those suited to the Dardel HPC system,
- set up test and development environments,
- utilise virtual machines for hosting databases, and
- implement data curation pipelines and data sharing services, and also undertake interactive and collaborative work using interactive frameworks like Jupyter Notebooks.
Who may use the PDC Cloud?
In the longer term, the intention is that any researchers who are eligible to apply for time and/or data allocations under the National Infrastructure for Computing in Sweden (NAISS) will be able to apply to use the Dardel Cloud.
How to apply to use the Dardel Cloud
Information about applying to use the Dardel Cloud will be available here when the pilot phase is completed.
Information about how to use the PDC Cloud
Information about using the PDC Cloud will be available on the PDC Support pages when the pilot phase is completed.