In a nutshell

What is the Edinburgh International Data Facility? 

Compute services

Most users of the EIDF work in our EIDF Virtual Desktop environments, which offers a rich set of data science and analytics tools: from browser-based notebooks to full desktop environments. For larger workloads they can access the EIDF GPU, EIDF Cirrus and EIDF Cerebras services. These services offer large clusters of GPUs, CPUs and Waferscale chips. GPUs are ideal for training AI, CPUs for parallel computing and Waferscale for training large generative AI models (LLMs).

For confidential data such as consented clinical trials and high-value intellectual property we offer EIDF Confidential Data Workspaces. These are similar to EIDF Virtual Desktops and provide project leads and managers with the tools to control all data ingress and egress. This way regular users on such a project cannot themselves bring data in and out of EIDF.

Data services

EIDF provides a flexible set of data protocols to support different requirements around security, cost, access patterns and remote access. EIDF S3 uses the same protocols as AWS S3 and store the data in the EPCC Advanced Compute Data facility in Edinburgh. It is available both external and internal to EIDF. For internal-only access we offer POSIX mounted storage (CephFS, VAST NFS), block storage for virtual machines (CephRBD) and persistent volumes for Kubernetes workloads (CephPVC).

To make collaborations and reproducibility easier we offer EIDF Gitlab and EIDF Container Image Registry services. Through Gitlab project members can manage shared code repositories and project planning. The container image registry lets projects keep packaged software stacks with code that can quickly be pulled into EIDF compute services. Also, it provides vulnerability scanning to help projects maintain safe software stacks.

Last, the EIDF offers a free EIDF Data Publishing service, where you can share data under an open access model for re-use in science and innovation.  Innovators and researchers looking for data can search and browse through the EIDF Data Catalogue, which is a FAIR-compliant data catalogue.

Customer Services

To help project leads, managers and users the EIDF Portal provides self-service access for onboarding, project setup, and project management.  The EIDF Documentation is updated regularly for end users to learn how to access and use services.  Projects can track and report usage on the EIDF Portal through our EIDF MARE system that monitors all data and compute systems. EIDF Pricing to help users estimate the costs of their projects. For problems with the service and questions beyond the documentation the EIDF Helpdesk responds to queries during working day hours. 

Safe Haven Services

EPPC provides EPCC Safe Haven Services to organisations who need to enable research on sensitive data obtained from healthcare, governments, finance institutions and beyond. These services are aligned and accredited to follow best practice in independent governance and supporting the linkage of complex personal data for public benefit research and policy-making under national and regional safeguards. 

Safe Havens are isolated from the rest of EIDF, with user approvals, data ingress and egress, and permitted software all controlled by information governance bodies independent of the infrastructure itself.

Certifications

The EIDF is managed by EPCC. EPCC is accredited for

• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information Security Management Systems
• ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems
• ISO 22301:2019 Business Continuity Management Systems

The EIDF has silver status in the Big Data Value Association i-Space programme since 2022.

Links

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