On 9 December, CERN and Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Serbian State Data Centre. The centre will become a Tier1 member of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), the highest level of collaboration within the Grid
The WLCG is a network of computing centres distributed across more than 40 countries that provides global computing resources for the storage, distribution and analysis of the data generated by the LHC.
This complex network is organised in tiers: Tier 0 is the CERN Data Centre; Tier 1 centres are powerful computing farms capable of providing permanent storage of raw data; and Tier 2 centres are additional data centres located in various collaborating institutes worldwide. The MoU signed on 9 December in Serbia marks a decisive step towards the country becoming a WLCG Tier 1 centre. The Serbian data centre will initially receive data from the CMS experiment, of which Serbia is a member.
“The signature of this MoU is a testimony to the vision of the Serbian government and the Serbian scientific community and their commitment towards the CERN research programme, and vice versa,” said Enrica Porcari, head of the CERN IT department, who signed the MoU. “We are impressed by the computing infrastructure that Serbia is making available to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, and, in particular, to the CMS collaboration. I am sure that this MoU will consolidate even further the longstanding relationship between CERN and Serbia and will contribute to realising our common vision to become a springboard for scientific collaboration here and worldwide. CERN continues to be committed to the co-development and sharing of knowledge with its MoU partners in the spirit of scientific progress.”
Wanda Parisien is a computing expert who navigates the vast landscape of hardware and software. With a focus on computer technology, software development, and industry trends, Wanda delivers informative content, tutorials, and analyses to keep readers updated on the latest in the world of computing.