IT Support for Research and Developement
Bruce Regner
regner@ics.muni.cz

„Standard IT“
Office worker
–Internet connection
–E-mail, web, Instant Messaging/VCF
–Office Apps (Text processor, Spreadsheet)
–Information System
–Computer (Windows/Mac/Linux) or Thin Client
–Data Volume – 100’s of megabytes to several gigabytes
–Processor Load: none

Standard IT
Teacher: plus
–Presentation program
–Simple image processing
–video processing (maybe)
–E-learning system (maybe)
–SW for Interactive Whiteboard, Voting System
–Computer
–Data Volume: gigabytes, 10’s of gigabytes
–Processor Load: low

Advanced IT
Graphic designer, Video Processing
–
–Data Volume – maybe 100’s of Gigabytes, several Terabytes
–Processor Load: sometimes high
–

Home Computer
Photos, Games, Home or Downloaded Videos, Music
–Maybe 100’s of gigabytes to several terabytes
–Processor Load: may be high
–
–Requirements for Home Computer are often higher, then for a Computer at Work

What is so special on R&D?
?? Psychology, economy, pedagogy, history
Medicine and Natural Sciences

CEITEC
Central European Institute of Technology
–life sciences, advanced materials and technologies
–Basic and applied research, Center of Excellence
–Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology, Mendel University in Brno, University of
Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno, Veterinary Research Institute, Institute of Physics
of Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
–MU: life sciences

CEITEC: Themes
Structural Biology
Brain and Mind Research
Genomics and Proteomics of Plant Systems
Molecular medicine
Molecular Veterinary Medicine
Advanced Nanotechnologies and Microtechnologies
Advanced Materials

Laboratory Devices
Flow cytometry
Microscopes
Magnetic resonance
Tomograph
Sequenator
Freezer
Fytotron

Scientist’s requirements
Complex
Sometimes conflicting

Data Storage
Various Types of Data
–Documents (gigabytes)
–Fotos (10’s of Gigabytes)
–Videos (100’s of Gigabytes)
–Data from Sequenators – up to 50 TB/year
–Electron Microscope – up to 30 TB/year
–
–It is necessary to acquire, store, transfer, process and backup the data
–

Data Storage
Several Data Storage Systems
–Standard
–Middle
–BIG
–Cloud: OneDrive Pro, OwnCloud
–
–Remote Access: VPN, SFTP/SCP

Sensitive data
Brain and Mind Research and Molecular Medicine deal with Patient Data
–Legal conditions for Sensitive Data Manipulation
–Administrative and Technical Measures
–Separation of Sensitive and „Normal“ data

Data Processing
Complex problems
–Polynomial, exponential complexity
–Large sets of data
–
–Require large computational resources
–Clusters, supercomputers
–1000’s of Processor Cores
–
–Remote Access: VPN, Terminal Server, TeamViewer, web interfaces

Network Services
Laboratory Devices
–often require network connection
–either directly or via computer
–Must be protected from unauthorized use
–Controlling computer can’t have AV and enabled updates
–Use of private IP addresses and NAT
–Use of Firewalls
–

Network Services
But
–The operator must be able to access the device from workplace or from home
–It must be possible to let the manufacturer’s technician to connect to the device on demand from
anywhere

Network Services
Network Speed
–Huge amounts of data
Networks Stability
–Required long-term Reliability

Servers and Workstations
Servers and Workstations
–must be connected to Internet with appropriate security level
–Must be Accessible from anywhere

Network services
Only known devices can be connected to the Network
–but
It must be possible to let guests connect easily

Network Services
If a Device is moved to another location, it must be possible to connect it without changing
network settings

Workstation Imaging
Some of the Workstations are very expensive to install
–A technician must fly from the US
–Sometimes 2000 – 4000 Euro
–It it possible to make “image” of the hard drive and in case of its failure to restore the system
to a new drive

Monitoring
Any failure must be detected ASAP
–Standard IT components – network, servers and data storage, power supply, temperatures in server
rooms
–Laboratory equipment: freezers (temperature, power supply), fytotrons (various parameters)
–Running experiments

Monitoring
Systems:
–Nagios
–Hardware monitoring devices – connected over computer network or cell network
–
–

Cooperation
Scientists do the Science
–Do not know data analysis, programming, optimization

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Thank You
Jméno Příjmení
jmeno@ics.muni.cz
http://www.ics.muni.cz/~jmeno