HIFIS Conference
The first conference on HIFIS took place at DESY Hamburg.
Roadmap
2019
2020
2021
Publish training program for the first half of 2021
The education and training work package publishes the offered training events for the first half of 2021 on https://software.hifis.net/events.
March 2021
Finish reporting for the first two years of HIFIS
After the ramp-up phase during the first year, the initial Cloud, Backbone and Software Services are expected to be in production by early 2021. We will report on the integration progress and impact of these services, especially with respect to user acceptance and added value for the scientific community.
Beta Version of Helmholtz Cloud Portal online
The Helmholtz Cloud Portal allows harmonized access to all Helmholtz Cloud services. It contains all necessary information to access the available services. The alpha version of the portal is planned to be available by end 2020 and the publicly accessible beta version is planned for February 2021.
April 2021
Start evaluation of further Services
While the integration of the initial service portfolio will continue, the evaluation of further services will start. This process will presumably involve the review of postponed services from the initial service selection as well as service selection criteria, focusing on service usage and optimal user experience.
June 2021
CI as a Service (Pilot)
We consider Continuous Integration (CI) an important aspect in a modern software engineering workflow. Easy-to-use CI resources should be available for all Helmholtz scientists. Beside the Helmholtz-wide GitLab many Helmholtz centers run their own GitLab instances on dedicated infrastructure in their center. In order to bundle resources and enable research software projects to easily use CI for their projects, CI will be offered as a service. In this milestone, we will set up CI as a Service and test it first with few pilot centers, in order to make it available to all Helmholtz communities.
Publish training program for the second half of 2021
The education and training work package publishes the offered training events for the second half of 2021 on https://software.hifis.net/events.
July 2021
AAI: Deprovisioning information from Helmholtz Identity Providers
Deprovisioning of users will be supported by the Helmholtz AAI. This includes a framework to query deprovisioning information from IdPs to allow automatic deprovisioning in Helmholtz AAI. In case of failure, user shall be contacted to confirm their account manually.
Monitoring of Helmholtz Cloud services
The service operation includes a continuous monitoring and a technical accounting. This will be the basis for the key figures of each service and the Helmholtz Cloud (cooperation with Backbone AAI).
Deprovisioning of users for at least one service
The automatic deprovisioning of users is described as documentation and technically implemented for at least one service (cooperation with Backbone AAI).
August 2021
Release of Helmholtz Cloud Portal
The Helmholtz Cloud Portal allows harmonized access to all Helmholtz Cloud services and contains the service description of the available services. It will include automated testing, redundant deployment, database backups, etc.
September 2021
HIFIS data transfer generally usable for interested centres
The HIFIS data transfer service will be improved such that any combination of interested centres can participate by only needing to install a lightweight client that can manage third party copy.
AAI: Communication with services
Developed concept and alpha implementation for automated communication with services, for example using Local Agent or via Cloud Portal. This requires cooperation with the Service Integration working group of the Cloud Cluster.
Postponed services from initial service selection transferred into new onboarding process
Services, that were postponed during the initial service selection, as well as newly applied services were transferred into the onboarding process for new Helmholtz Cloud services.
October 2021
First Services fully in operation modus
The integration of parts of the services in the initial service portfolio is completed. These fully integraded services can be used according to their description and service level.
November 2021
Process Framework for Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio
The Process Framework for Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio is released. It describes all processes around the lifecycle of a Helmholtz cloud service.
December 2021
AAI: Deprovisioning information to services
Obtained deprovisioning information shall be provided to services. This requires cooperation with the Service Integration working group of the Cloud Cluster.
Contract
A cooperation agreement shall define the framework within which the Helmholtz Cloud operates. It covers the relevant aspects of GDPR and IT security.
Pilot-Status for at least one meta service
At least one of the prominent services (such as Nextcloud, Open Stack or Jupyter) or a combination of those is extended to a meta service: the meta service, which is provided by several Helmholtz Centers, is working as a federation or cooperation instead of separated local solutions.
Conceptualize Binder / ShinyR Integration into GitLab
Allowing scientists or reviewers to easily interact with computational environments can be considered a key aspect for reproducible and easy-to-use research software. Integrating tools like Binder or ShinyR into the Helmholtz-wide GitLab will allow scientists to easily make their research software product available to others without the need for installing and configuring tools locally. In this milestone, a concept will be elaborated on how this integration may be realized.
2022
January 2022
Initial Review of Cloud Service Portfolio
The current set of cloud services will be reviewed. The results will enter the annual HIFIS report and further service portfolio maintenance.