Engaging DCIs, Brussels, 31 May

I’m in Brussels for the “Engaging European DCIs together” meeting organized by SIENA (the Standards and Interoperability for eInfrastructure Implementation Initiative).

This evening we were treated to a welcome reception for the VENUS-C project (Virtual Multidisciplinary EnviroNments Using Cloud Infrastructures) at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre in Brussels. Over champagne and nibbles, we heard from Fabrizio Galiardi and Andrew Herbert of Microsoft Research Cambridge about how the project will drive forward European innovation. VENUS-C will develop and deploy a Cloud Computing service for research and industry communities in Europe, offering an industrial-quality service-oriented platform based on virtualisation technologies. Including industrial partners and the broad range of scientific user communities, the consortium will demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a Scientific Cloud for Europe.

Tomorrow’s agenda includes talks from SIENA, representatives from the European Commission’s Géant & Infrastructures Unit and the six distributed computing projects already started or getting underway this summer: European Grid Initiative (EGI-InSPIRE), Initiative for Globus Europe (IGE), VENUS-C, European Middleware Initiative (EMI), StratusLab and the European Desktop Grid Initiative (EDGI). Lots to talk about and some exciting collaborations in the pipe-line. Til tomorrow then!