"This project brings everything together: the collaboration between HPC support teams, the more efficient use of systems through optimised software installations, as well as the benefit to scientists of a unified software environment available everywhere."
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EESSI wins prestigious HPC Wire Readers' Choice Award for innovative software solution
EESSI's solution makes installing software for scientific HPC projects much easier and more efficient. Researchers get access to hundreds of instantly deployable software packages optimised for a wide range of hardware. This saves time and effort during the start-up phase of their projects.
More efficiency, fewer obstacles
EESSI grew out of a collaboration of HPC support teams striving for more efficient software installations. Optimal software performance is crucial to exploit the full capacity of expensive and complex HPC systems. Previously, researchers often had to manually install software with each new environment, a time-consuming step. EESSI offers a solution that eases the burden on support teams and scientists alike, without compromising performance.
A big boost
"This award is a big boost for the work of our support team and the teams of our collaborators. The appreciation by the community makes us incredibly proud." says Caspar van Leeuwen, project lead MultiXscale at SURF, a key partner in the project.
How does EESSI work?
EESSI combines technologies such as CernVM-FS, Gentoo Linux and EasyBuild into one shared software stack with a number of unique advantages. The software stack is:
- optimised for a wide variety of processors;
- compatible with any Linux operating system;
- available anywhere in the world;
- streamable on-demand.
The streaming principle is similar to on-demand video: you see all the available software in the catalogue, but the necessary files are only downloaded when you start a program. This allows research to make the most of their hardware, whether they are working on a laptop, in the cloud, or on one of the large HPC clusters in Europe.
MultiXscale and the role of SURF
The success of EESSI is the result of substantial investment and collaboration. As SURF, we have been involved since the early days of the project, and current lead the work package within the MultiXscale project – a EuroHCP Center of Excellence – which is responsible for developing EESSI. Together with 12 European partners, we help to further develop EESSI and apply it in scientific workflows, both on our own systems, as well as on the systems of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.
About the HPC Wire Readers' Choice Awards
The annual awards from HPCwire, a leading international magazine in the field of HPC, are presented during the Supercomputing Conference. The award highlights the most pioneering technologies and projects in HPC across 24 categories.
More information
For more information on EESSI, visit https://www.multixscale.eu/ and https://www.eessi.io/docs/.