EGI Federation Home
Updated 31/01/2024

Advanced computing for oceanography and aquaculture: EGI and Marine Institute sign SLA

Marine Institute aquaculture

EGI is excited to announce a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the Marine Institute in the context of the Horizon 2020 project EuroSea, which brings together key European actors of ocean observing and forecasting with users of oceanographic products and services, in support of ocean management and decision making on critical areas such as aquaculture.

About the Marine Institute

The Marine Institute was set up in Ireland in 1991 “to undertake, to coordinate, to promote and to assist in marine research and development and to provide such services related to research and development, that in the opinion of the Institute, will promote economic development and create employment and protect the marine environment.”

It is the state agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland. It provides scientific and technical advice to the Irish Government to help inform policy and support the sustainable development of Ireland’s marine resources.

The Marine Institute is notably a key partner in the EGI flagship project iMagine, as well as in the Horizon Europe project ANERIS.

EGI Services Included in the SLA

The SLA includes EGI Cloud Compute, Online Storage, and Check-in services, providing a complete solution for flexible virtual machine deployment and scaling.

Cloud Compute enables users to deploy and scale virtual machines on demand, offering guaranteed computational resources in a secure and isolated environment with standard API access, without the overhead of managing physical servers.

Our Online Storage service provides researchers with a high-quality environment to store and share data with distributed teams. Thanks to EGI Check-in, teams get a centralised solution that seamlessly connects various Identity Providers with EGI service providers, so that they can quickly and easily select their preferred Identity Provider and gain access to a wide range of EGI services without any hassle.

The computational and storage resources for this SLA were provided by the OpenStack site at the Walton Institute. Walton Institute is a cornerstone of ICT research and development activity in Ireland, undertaking cutting-edge research and blending fundamental science with real-world commercial applications. To know more, please visit the official website.

Walton

Observational and warning system for aquaculture

This collaboration between EGI and the Marine Institute also contributed to a significant milestone for aquaculture management, recently captured in an article on Frontiers in Marine Science. The design and implementation of a marine observatory delivering real-time and forecasted oceanic conditions for the aquaculture sector took place during the EuroSea project with the successful demonstration in two sites.

The server operates within the EGI Infrastructure, designed for scientific research. It was tailored for containerised applications, which bundle all necessary elements for running independently. Built on Kubernetes, it offers easy management and scalability. Alongside containerisation, EGI also provides tools like data management and workflow orchestration, creating a comprehensive computing environment for researchers. This setup, with Kubernetes and integrated services, offers researchers a reliable, scalable platform, ideal for scientific projects due to its seamless compatibility and simplified management.

~“EGI has been an excellent partner during the development of the EuroSea marine observatory. EGI made it possible to deploy this new service in a containerised environment and make the application accessible through the web to our customers. In addition, the continuous feedback and support received from EGI was tremendously helpful for the successful conclusion of this project.”

Diego Pereiro, Postdoctoral Researcher, Marine Institute

Get Involved

If you or your organisation are interested in leveraging the capabilities of EGI to enhance your research endeavours, please explore our website and reach out to us. Our collaboration with the Marine Institute exemplifies our dedication to advancing data analytics and highlights the significance of collaborative initiatives in advancing ocean science.

Related content

iMagine

iMagine provides a portfolio of ‘free at point of use’ image datasets, high-performance image analysis...

ANERIS

operAtional seNsing lifE technologies for maRIne ecosystemS

...
Blue-Cloud 2026

Blue-Cloud 2026 aims at a further evolution of this pilot ecosystem into a Federated European...