14 September 2021: new ECMWF data centre opens in Bologna, Italy
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
14 September 2021: new ECMWF data centre opens in Bologna, Italy ecmwf.int ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 1
ECMWF data centre
opens in Bologna, Italy
ECMWF’s new data centre Timeline to Atos
in Bologna, Italy, is formally system acceptance
opening on 14 September 2021,
housing the Centre’s new
Atos supercomputer system
scheduled to begin running
operationally mid-2022.
This opening not only marks
a new phase in ECMWF life,
but also stands as the perfect
illustration of the strong
collaboration between ECMWF
as a collective of nations and
each individual Member State.
operational and reliability tests to complete Bologna data centre
Overview the acceptance process. The system is The new facility is planned to
currently running in parallel with the existing become operational in 2022.
The decision to develop a new data centre
Cray high performance computing facility
followed the acknowledgement by the
(HPCF) until 1 May 2022, when it will take • issuing extended-range forecasts daily
ECMWF Council that the existing facility
in Reading, UK, could not accommodate
over the provision of the operational service rather than twice-weekly, whilst increasing Staffing
for a period of four years, supporting both the number of members from 51 to 100.
ECMWF’s next generation of supercomputers. Some ECMWF staff are already working
operational and research activities. This will allow a better description of
in the new data centre, and whilst the
In June 2017, following an international extreme events in the monthly time-range.
The Data Handling System (DHS), including COVID-19 pandemic has impacted some
tender amongst ECMWF Member States, moves, more colleagues will join later in
more than 50,000 tape cartridges, will move The increased capability will also enable
representatives of all the Member States 2021 and 2022. ECMWF staff in Bologna are
from Reading to Bologna with all aspects the Centre to continue investigative work
approved the proposal by the Italian being joined by experts from our vendors.
of the migration planned to be finalised in the field of machine learning in numerical
Government and the Emilia-Romagna All are working to support the data centre
by early 2022. weather prediction.
Region to host ECMWF’s new data centre and the equipment it houses. The roles
in Bologna. Construction work began in The improved computing power will enable Longer-term strategic goals include range from electrical and mechanical
December 2018. advances such as: developing the operational prediction engineers to support the infrastructure, 24/7
system to run on heterogeneous GPU/CPU operations staff monitoring the performance
The past two and a half years have seen • a major upgrade of the ensemble forecast HPC architectures and using advanced of the building, systems, applications and
considerable progress to complete the horizontal resolution from a grid spacing of high-performance computing, big data and services, big data experts, and hardware
building works and the tender process for the 18 km to about 10 km, which is expected AI methodologies to create a digital twin and software analysts to support not only
new supercomputer, during challenging times to significantly improve forecasts of of the Earth with a breakthrough in realism. the supercomputers and meteorological
including the global COVID-19 pandemic. near-surface temperatures and winds. applications, but all of the supporting
• introducing a multi-layer snow scheme systems and the Data Handling System.
The new Atos high-performance computers,
installed in summer 2021, are now allowing better description of near-surface
undergoing a series of user acceptance, temperature in snow-covered areas.
2 ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 ecmwf.int ecmwf.int ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 3
ECMWF data centre opens in Bologna, Italy
Atos HPC – Storage
The Bologna data centre Atos BullSequana XH2000
The new facility provides the flexibility to In December 2019, ECMWF agreed a
accommodate the latest technologies in four-year contract worth over 80 million euros
supercomputing and allow ECMWF to with Atos for the supply of its BullSequana
continue on its path towards its long-term XH2000 supercomputer, to replace the
strategic goals. It offers flexibility for future current Cray XC40 supercomputers.
expansion requirements and modern
infrastructure that supports ECMWF’s The Atos system will deliver an increase in
network and telecommunications sustained performance by a factor of about
requirements. five compared to the current HPCF.
The main system is made up of four self-
The data centre is on the site of the
sufficient Atos BullSequana XH2000 clusters,
Tecnopolo di Bologna campus that is
also called ‘complexes’. Each cluster is
redeveloping the unused buildings and
connected to all the high-performance storage.
grounds of a former tobacco factory.
The campus extends over 13 hectares There are two types of nodes that run user
and consists of newly built and refurbished workloads: ‘compute nodes’ for parallel jobs,
buildings for public and private research and ‘GPIL nodes’ for general purpose and
facilities. interactive workloads. Other nodes have
special functions, such as managing the
The Emilia-Romagna Region maintains the system, running the scheduler and
IB HDR switch
Data hall
LNET router
site and general services that are shared with
Cell
Each
connecting to the storage. 4-rack
‘cell’
Sequana
XH2000
other users of the development (cleaning, The new 1,000m2 data hall contains
up to
rack
top HDR cable
384
site security etc.). It retains ownership of the More details about the system configuration houses the Atos BullSequana nodes cell HDR cable
premises and of any other land, buildings and are available in an ECMWF Newsletter XH2000 supercomputer. LNET router connection
to storage subsystems
article about the new high-performance
Cell
Cell
infrastructure in the area of the Tecnopolo
di Bologna and will provide them to ECMWF computing facility.
free of charge during the contract period.
Storage
Atos HPC – Compute Ce
L2
ll ll
L1 Ce
Comparison between
current and new systems
4 ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 ecmwf.int ecmwf.int ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 5
ECMWF data centre opens in Bologna, Italy
Oggi è una giornata davvero molto importante, per Today is a very important day, for Bologna and for It is an important moment in the life of ECMWF as
Bologna e per tutta l’Emilia-Romagna, ma soprattutto the whole of Emilia-Romagna, but above all for the we formally become a multi-site organisation, with our
per il Paese. Dopo due anni di lavori, che non si sono country. After two years of work, which has never head offices in the UK, our new data centre in Bologna,
stopped despite the difficulties due to the pandemic,
mai fermati nonostante le difficoltà dovute alla Italy, and our new offices in Bonn.
the new Data Center of the European Weather
pandemia, al Tecnopolo di Bologna si avvia l’attività Center starts up at the Bologna Technopole. As we formally open the ECMWF new data centre in
del nuovo Data center del Centro meteo europeo.
Bologna, it is difficult to find words to express not just
That citadel of science is taking shape more and
Sempre di più prende forma quella cittadella della how grateful, but also how impressed we are in the
more in which, as a Region, together with the State
scienza in cui come Regione, insieme allo Stato e and the European Union, we have strongly believed. face of what has been achieved here. Our links with
all’Unione Europea, abbiamo fortemente creduto. An infrastructure that makes our region an Italy have always been strong, and Italy has always
Una infrastruttura che rende la nostra regione hub international hub for Big Data, digital and new been and is a key player in our Council of Member
internazionale dei Big Data, del digitale e delle nuove technologies, where 80% of the national States. Now the collaboration which unites ECMWF
tecnologie, dove si concentrerà l’80% della capacità supercomputing capacity and 20% of the European and Italy is only growing stronger with new partnerships
di supercalcolo nazionale e il 20% di quella europea, one will be concentrated, such as to put Europe being developed at national, regional and local levels.
on a par with the giants USA and China.
tale da porre l’Europa alla pari dei colossi Usa e Cina. This collaboration at the heart of the city of big data will
In addition to the technological heart of the I am sure support our Member States as we endeavour
Oltre al cuore tecnologico del Centro meteo europeo,
European Weather Center, the Technopole will be to tackle the critical impact of severe weather and
il Tecnopolo sarà la casa del supercomputer europeo
the home of the European supercomputer Leonardo climate change.
Leonardo e vi troveranno sede le più importanti and will house the most important national scientific
istituzioni scientifiche nazionali, fra cui Agenzia Italia institutions, including the Italian Weather Agency
Meteo e Istituto nazionale di astrofisica, oltre a Centri and the National Institute of Astrophysics, as well
di ricerca, distaccamenti universitari, aree comuni per as research centers, university branches, municipal
incubatori, attività all’avanguardia nel campo della areas for incubators, cutting-edge activities in the
field of research and development. Together with È un momento importante nella vita di ECMWF
ricerca e sviluppo. Insieme alla Fondazione Big Data
the Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for Human poiché diventiamo formalmente un’organizzazione
and Artificial Intelligence for Human Development – multi-sito, con le nostre sedi centrali nel Regno
Development Foundation - IFAB, which
IFAB, che abbiamo voluto direttamente come Regione. we directly wanted as a Region. Unito, il nostro nuovo data center a Bologna,
Negli oltre 120mila i metri quadri di superficie dell’ex in Italia, e i nostri nuovi uffici a Bonn.
In the more than 120 thousand square meters of
Manifattura Tabacchi, riconsegnati alla città attraverso Mentre apriamo formalmente il nuovo data center
the former Tobacco Factory, returned to the city
un’opera di riqualificazione urbana condivisa con through an urban redevelopment project shared ECMWF a Bologna, è difficile trovare le parole per
amministratori e comunità locale, troveranno impiego with administrators and the local community, esprimere non solo quanto siamo grati, ma anche
1.500 persone tra ricercatori, tecnici, addetti. 1,500 people will be employed, including quanto siamo impressionati di fronte a ciò che è
researchers, technicians and employees. stato raggiunto qui. I nostri legami con l’Italia sono
Saperi e tecnologie che porteranno a soluzioni sempre stati forti e l’Italia è sempre stata ed è un
concrete in tutti i settori: tutela dell’ambiente e lotta Knowledge and technologies that will lead to attore chiave nel nostro Consiglio degli Stati
ai cambiamenti climatici, salute e scienze della vita, concrete solutions in all sectors: protection of the membri. Ora la collaborazione che unisce l’ECMWF
riorganizzazione dei tempi delle città e logistica, environment and the fight against climate change, e l’Italia non fa che rafforzarsi con lo sviluppo di
processi produttivi e agricoltura. Una capacità di health and life sciences, reorganization of cities nuove partnership a livello nazionale, regionale e
and logistics, production processes and agriculture. locale. Sono sicuro che questa collaborazione nel
leggere il futuro che mettiamo a disposizione del
An ability to read the future that we make available cuore della città dei big data sosterrà i nostri Stati
Paese, per ripartire nel segno della sostenibilità, to the country, to restart in the name of sustainability, membri mentre ci sforziamo di affrontare l’impatto
dell’innovazione del lavoro di qualità. Per costruire of innovation in quality work. To immediately build critico delle condizioni meteorologiche avverse
da subito un presente diverso. a different present. e dei cambiamenti climatici.
Stefano Bonaccini Florence Rabier
Presidente Regione Emilia-Romagna Director-General ECMWF
6 ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 ecmwf.int ecmwf.int ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 7
ECMWF data centre opens in Bologna, Italy
ECMWF
About ECMWF Three ECMWF sites in the
ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. UK, Germany and Italy.
Headquartered in Reading in the UK, and with offices in Bonn, Germany, and its data centre
in Bologna, Italy, ECMWF is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by
34 Member and Co-operating States, mostly in Europe. ECMWF is both a research institute
and a 24/7 operational service, producing global numerical weather predictions at medium and
long ranges for its Member and Co-operating States and the broader community. The Centre
also holds one of the largest archives of numerical weather prediction data in the world.
Over the years, ECMWF has developed a strong partnership with the EU and is an entrusted
entity for the implementation and operation of the Climate Change and Atmosphere
Monitoring Services of the ground-breaking EU Copernicus Programme.
www.ecmwf.int
Contact
For more information, interviews, B-roll, or queries, please contact pressoffice@ecmwf.int.
Further reading and images
• https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/news/2017/ecmwfs-new-data-centre-be-
located-bologna-italy-2019
• https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/news/2020/ecmwf-signs-contract-
atos-%20new-supercomputer
• https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/press-kit-bologna-host-ecmwfs-new-
data-centre
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecmwf/albums
8
#OneECMWF
ECMWF Bologna Press Kit 14 September 2021 ecmwf.int
You can also read
