Themenplattform ICT
Themenplattform ICT
ICT - Computing in science and technology
ICT and computing in science and technology is an extremely broad topic that could include various subject matters such as social media and mobile computing, security and privacy, or software engineering. Therefore the topical platform has decided to focus on a particular subject matter, which it deems very important at a given point in time and change the focus over time. For 2011/2012 the topical platform has chosen to investigate trends in the area of High Performance Computing (HPC) and Cloud Computing. HPC is a well established domain which continues to be important given the growing demand to simulate and predict the evolution of complex systems. Cloud Computing is a new and fast developing domain, which in some sense is quite different from HPC but at the same time has commonalities. The topical platform thinks it is important to investigate what changes Cloud Computing will bring and how it might complement HPC.
Early Findings
HPC remains an important part of ICT. The need for a powerful HPC infrastructure is generally very high and the trend towards large PetaFLOP and ExaFLOP machines is unbroken. Investments in HPC are perceived very important and should continuously been made. It is vital to have state-of-the-art HPC centers in the country and make them available to academia and industry. More research in the area of energy aware computing and towards a convergence of HPC and cloud computing is required. Cloud computing clearly is one of the biggest trends in ICT. However, there is no clear vision of how to make use of it, integrate it into existing infrastructure, or even drive innovation in this space. In order not to miss the development and build up own skills, it would be important to initiate projects related to Cloud Computing. A country-wide academic data and application cloud would be an example of such projects.
