Final e-FISCAL workshop at EGI.eu in Amsterdam

Please read the workshop report for a summary of the event!

The final e-FISCAL workshop was held at EGI.eu premises in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2013, as part of a series of EGI workshops titled "Evolving EGI". The objective of the workshop was to present and discuss all the findings of the project and discuss their possible follow-up activities.

Monday 28 January 2013 - morning

e-FISCAL tutorial: methodologies and their uses - Turingzaal (11:00-12:30)

Session Chair - Fotis Karagiannis

The goal of this session is to give the audience an overview of the basic skills needed to initiate, execute and analyse the results of simple cost assessment exercises. The session covers the key aspects of the different cost assessment methodologies and their optimal application areas. The end of the session has been re served for a tutorial on how e-FISCAL costing model works inpractice as well as on basic cost consideration 7 related to cloud adoption.

11:00  Setting the scene: Distinguishing costs from prices and value - Uses of costing information, Sandra Cohen, Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), Greece – 20’
11:20  Cost Assessment Methodologies: FCA, TCO, e-FISCAL - Where do they fit best, Sandra Cohen - 25'
11:45 e-FISCAL costing model and basic cost considerations related to cloud (avoidable costs and savings), Sandra Cohen

Tutorial slides

e-FISCAL Workshop - Project Findings - Turingzaal (13:30-15:30) 

Session Chair - Owen Appleton

Over the past two years, the e-FISCAL project has been assessing the overall cost of computing service provision for research in Europe. This session of the final project workshop will present the key findings of the project including a state of the art review, cost models and analysis, and results on benchmarking EGI and mid-sized HPC installations with the comparable services available from Amazon EC2. Participants will gain a better understanding of the kind of cost assessment issues for high-utilisation rate ICT services that should be considered when choosing between different infrastructure options.

13:30 Welcome Message, Steven Newhouse, EGI.eu- 5' 
13:35 e-FISCAL Key Findings, Fotis Karagiannis, e-FISCAL project director, AUEB - 20' 
13:55 Benchmarking Results: HTC & HPC vs. Amazon EC2, Kashif Iqbal, Irish Center for High End Computing, National University Galway, Ireland, 20’
14:15 Business and Pricing Models, Sergio Andreozzi, EGI.eu, 20'
14:35 e-FISCAL Reusable Tools and Approaches, Matti Heikkurinen, Emergence Tech Limited (ETL), UK, 20'
14:55 Q&A

Coffee/Tea - 15:30-16:00

e-FISCAL Workshop - Case studies - Turingzaal (16:00-17:30)

Session Chair - Matti Heikkurinen

An important aspect of the work carried out by e-FISCAL will be the application of the results. The case studies presented will offer participants concrete examples on how the outputs of e-FISCAL can be applied across the e-Infrastructure community and commercially.

16:00 Introduction, Matti Heikkurinen - 5'
16:05 Case Study Presentations - 60'
Presentations will cover concrete examples of cost issues from both e-Infrastructure and Industry perspectives such as cost analysis and cost sharing models, covering different computing and data management services. Case study presentations:

• Global HPC budget map - Addison Snell, Intersect360 Research
• Costs of Digital Archiving - Anna Palaiologk, Charles Beagrie Ltd.
• LifeWatch costing and Funding, the LifeWatch e-infrastructure financial construction - Jacco Konijn, Project Manager, LifeWatch project

17:05 Panel Discussion - 25'

End of day 1 - 17:30

Tuesday 29 January 2013 - morning

Coffee,  discussion and demonstrations of e-FISCAL tools (08:30-09:00)

e-FISCAL Workshop: Sustainable e-Infrastructures for Research - Turingzaal (09:00-10:30)

Session Chair - Matti Heikkurinen

The final session of the e-FISCAL workshop focuses on moving towards the future beyond the project, which finishes at the end of January 2013. Participants will hear different future scenarios from various e-Infrastructure providers as well as industry. This session also serves as a bridge to the EGI dedicated sessions by focusing on specific interests of the e-Infrastructure community.

09:00 Summary of the previous day’s discussions & setting the stage, Matti Heikkurinen, Emergence Tech Ltd - 5'
09:05 Global of view of e-Infrastructure budgets  - 15', Addison Snell, Intersect360 Research
09:20 EGI: Cost considerations of HTC service provision - the EGI.eu model - Steven Newhouse, EGI.eu - 15'
09:35 Business models for federated infrastructures - FedSM model, Owen Appleton, Emergence Tech Ltd - 15'
09:50 e-FISCAL: Sustainability and Business models - Lessons Learned and Way Forward
Fotis Karagiannis, AUEB, GR - 15'
10:05 Wrap-up Panel Discussion: Issues to discuss, Actions and Recommendations

• What cost assessment tells us, what are the limits?
• Business models - knowing the costs as the fist step towards enabling pay-per-use
• Linking the costs with value - excellent science
• Moving beyond €/core hour - mapping costs with service portfolio

The final workshop report is being prepared, please contact us to be notified when it will be availabel! The Evolving EGI workshop continued with the following topics:

• Charging for EGI Services
• Federated Resource Allocation
• EGI Scientific Publication Repository and Discipline Classification
• Defining Service Portfolios
• Evolving EGI Global Services