Ministry issues policy on future development of scientific computing
The Ministry of Education and Culture has published guidelines on how services for scientific computing will be developed in Finland. The document includes the first description of Enterprise Architecture (EA) of Scientific Computing Resources and Services. The architecture description focuses on the current and target status of scientific computing, as well as the strategy for its development.
Emergence from artificial silos
The architecture description draws attention to one of the key problems to be solved – the boundaries between the research sectors administered by different ministries, which are hindering efficient use of scientific computing at national level. Broad-based coordination of local and centralised activities at national level is viewed as a future objective. Data-intensive scientific computing methods, in particular, will be introduced in an increasing number of disciplines and scientific computing will become increasingly important.
– State research institutes should not be prevented by artificial silos from using the scientific computing services offered to universities by CSC. In practice, the various research organisations engage in extensive cooperation, says Pekka Lehtovuori, Director, Services for Research, at CSC.
Cost-effective combination of centralised and distributed services
Finnish computational science is of a high standard. This is partly due to the outstanding entity of services where centralised, national scientific computing services offered through CSC are combined with distributed solutions and international resources. The enterprise architecture also takes account of the importance of scientific software, expert support and training to the service as a whole.
The objective is the preservation and development of the service level so that scientific computing as a whole contributes to a competitive and internationally attractive research system and enables new scientific breakthroughs, while being organised as the most cost effective combination of a centralised and decentralised approach.
– Finland must maintain its internationally competitive position as a provider of scientific computing resources, and this will require continuous investment. When deciding on the creation of new computing environments, the calculated total cost of ownership – evaluated on the basis of commonly agreed principles – should feed into comparisons of the various options, Lehtovuori continues.
Further information
Pekka Lehtovuori
Director, Services for Research
CSC – IT Center for Science
pekka.lehtovuori@csc.fi
tel. +358 (0)50 3819 723
The Enterprise Architecture (EA) of Scientific Computing Resources and Services* (only available in Finnish): https://www.avoindata.fi/data/fi/dataset/tieteellisten-laskentaresurssien-ja-niiden-oheispalvelujen-kokonaisarkkitehtuuri
* This definition was conducted by the Computational Science Forum established by the Ministry of Education and Culture (appointment decision OKM/20/040/2013) and approved by the Steering group for information management and ICT of higher education (appointment decision OKM/21/040/2014).