HIFIS Conference
The first conference on HIFIS took place at DESY Hamburg.
Roadmap
2019
2020
September 2020
Service Agreement on Helmholtz Backbone
HIFIS fostered a service agreement with the German National Research and Education Network (DFN) on operating a a Helmholtz-wide Virtual Private Network (Helmholtz Backbone), covering the majority of Helmholtz centres. By September, the contract is expected to be signed from the participating partners.
Start of HIFIS Helpdesk
A common contact point for all queries and support requests shall be introduced. This will be realized using a ticketing system, allowing to distribute tasks related to the different HIFIS clusters, especially Cloud Services and Software Services.
Launch of the HIFIS Software Consulting Services
HIFIS Software offers free-of-charge consulting as a service to research groups within the Helmholtz umbrella. We can help you deal with specific licensing issues, migrating code between different environments and languages, setting up new projects, and other problems that you need to solve.
October 2020
Announcement of initial Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio
After multiple iterations, the first set of selected federated services, forming the initial Helmholtz Cloud Service Portfolio, will be announced and started to be integrated. This set will be continuously enhanced and the performance of the integrated services will be monitored.
HIFIS Meeting
A meeting of all HIFIS members is planned to foster collaboration between the HIFIS clusters. Non-HIFIS Helmholtz-centres as well as all incubator platforms shall be incorporated.
Reusable Ansible recipes for a scalable GitLab instance
The future software management platform will be based on reusable Ansible recipes. This allows other research centers to reuse the implemented solution. The open-source recipes are publicly available on gitlab.com/hifis/ansible.
Roadmap for the Integration of the initial Services
Having finished the list of the initial service portfolio, the integration of the services will start. As different services need different time for their integration, a specific roadmap will be established.
November 2020
Integrate the Software Management Platform into the Helmholtz Cloud
The software management platform is planned to be integrated into the Helmholtz Cloud as soon as the technical platform is available. Continuous Integration will be part of the software management platform from the very beginning.
Recipes for a Scalable CI solution
One important element of the software management platform is a solution for continuous integration (CI). Reusable Ansible recipes for a GitLab CI infrastructure will be provided. The Ansible role is developed here.
2021
January 2021
Set-up of Helmholtz Backbone Connections
First Virtual Private Network (Helmholtz Backbone) connections have been set up and are in productive use.
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.
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 service selection criteria, focusing on service usage and optimal user experience.
December 2021
Cloud Service Process Manual
The cloud service portfolio process framework will be agreed upon and will be used for the maintenance and further strengthening of the service portfolio.
2022
January 2022
Review of Initial Cloud Service Portfolio
The initial set of cloud services will be reviewed. The results will enter the annual HIFIS report and further service portfolio maintenance.