# EESSI/Azure sync meeting 2025-05-19

## Attendees

- Kenneth (UGent/EESSI)
- Laura (MS Azure)
- Alan (CECAM/EESSI)
- Ivar + Martin (SURF)
- Caspar (SURF)

## Notes

- continued funding for EESSI resources
- initial contact with Jet de Ranitz, but no concrete follow-up yet through Laura/Ivar
- status update by Martin
- 15k spent this year (~20k budget for this year)
- ~11k on `zen4` build clusters, ~1k on Stratum 1
- `zen4` build clusters can be burnt down quickly without too much impact
- allows us to keep Stratum 1 in Azure alive until end of the year
- there's two Stratum 1 resource groups, both consuming resources?!
- opportunities in EOSC at SURF
- "federated nodes"
- 3 projects, one based on EESSI
- needs to be demonstratable in November
- public (?) Stratum 1 mirror for EESSI
- Alan has applied for FENIX resources (which were approved)
- CI services (JSC) + Stratum 1 mirror server (CEA)
- Marina @ Azure was looking into sponsored credits for EESSI (via Laura)
- difficult to explore currently due to end of fiscal year (June)
- can explore this path further starting July
- ISC'25
- no Azure booth this year
- limited presence
- other funding coming in via Hugo for funding INUITS to improve AMD GPUs support in EESSI
- Alan+Kenneth actively following up on that
- SURF looking into leveraging EESSI for RStudio/Nextflow
- to create catalog items in SURF Research Cloud
- similar to ideas for integrating EESSI in Open OnDemand
- next EESSI/Azure sync meetings
- June'25 => meeting cancelled
- July'25: checkpoint, resume exploring of funding through Azure
- Aug'25: active follow up on possible funding opportunities

# EESSI/Azure sync meeting 2025-02-17

## Attendees

- Kenneth (UGent/EESSI)
- Laura (MS Azure)
- Alan (CECAM/EESSI)
- Ivar (SURF)

## Notes

- Laura has been in touch with Jet de Ranitz (ex-SURF CEO)
- refered Laura to Marina (Account Exec Edu NL)
- may be possible to get credits via SURF?
- Ivar has already been in touch with Marina
- Laura will follow up with Marina on this
- other option via OCRE
- 60k project, OCRE would fund 5k discount for that
- through research group using EESSI
- set up separate call on this w/ Mark Fitzsimons?
- direct funding via Azure would require business case that would result in more usage of Azure
- via project partners
- likely smaller budget
- maybe via Open OnDemand?
- integration of EESSI into Open OnDemand (OoD) is a work-in-progress
- Kenneth has been in touch with Emily Moffat Sadeghi
- Laura can loop in Xavier on this (working on integration of OoD in CycleCloud)
- azhop being replaced by CycleCloud with Slurm (managed product)
- see also use of EESSI in https://github.com/Azure/az-hop/blob/main/playbooks/ood.yml
- some option via Do IT Now?
- EuroHPC funding calls coming soon?
- EOSC calls (https://eosc.eu/calls-grants)
- EESSI has been exploring EOSC Node
- MultiXscale was recommended to do more with EOSC
- EOSC Horizon calls coming up with deadline in Sept'25
- see [draft call](https://indico.cern.ch/event/1468515/contributions/6183116/attachments/2949159/5183448/HORIZON-INFRA-2025_06_27_2024_Corrected%20version.pdf)
- for 2026 and beyond
- EOSC will linked with *EuroHPC Federation Platform* (see [FOSDEM'25 talk](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6718-eurohpc-fp-a-federated-platform-for-hpc-infrastructure-in-europe-built-with-open-source-software/))
- Azure should also be listed at https://www.eessi.io/docs/systems
- Hugo (@ Azure) is working with INUITS through some funds provided by NVIDIA to improve NVIDIA GPU support in EESSI
- via development funds
- Ivar is interested to learn more, has some contacts @ NVIDIA software team
- end result short term will be talk on this effort at [EUM'25](https://easybuild.io/eum25/)
- also used for funding group dinners at EUM'25
- next sync meeting
- move from Mon 17 March 16:00 CET to Mon 10 March 13:00 CET

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## Notes of previous meetings

* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2025-02-17
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2025-01-20
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-12-16
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-09-18
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-04-15
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-03-11
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-01-15
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2024-01-15
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-12-18
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-09-18
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-08-21
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-06-19
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-05-15
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-04-17
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-02-17
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-2023-01-20
* https://github.com/EESSI/meetings/wiki/Azure-meeting-Dec-9-2022