MetaCentrum -- e-Infrastructure for Computational and Data Challenges

J. Kmuníček¹, V. Žáková², S. Licehammer², M. Kuba¹, I. Křenková¹, and
D. Antoš¹

1 CESNET, z.s.p.o., Zikova 4, 160 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic

2 Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Botanicka 68a, 620 00 Brno,

Czech Republic

MetaCentrum, the Czech National Grid Initiative, runs more than 1300 CPU cores in four major cities of the Czech Republic. The computation power is available for scientists in many research areas. The software installed on the infrastructure supports, among many others, biomolecular simulations, enzymatic structure engineering, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics, studies, exploration of reaction mechanisms at atomic details.

In addition to routine computations, MetaCentrum is also active in development generic and/or specialised solutions, starting from specific application interfaces to bringing user-empowered element to the infrastructure by means of thorough virtualisation, allowing users to run their own environment and control the infrastructure.

The poster describes basic principles of MetaCentrum, available applications, running international projects, and user benefits from the infrastructure.