This international ELIXIR EXCELERATE workshop enables bioinformatics trainers and infrastructure specialists to share their experiences and knowledge on using clouds, virtual machine (VM) images and Docker, and it brings everybody abreast with the full potential of these technologies (see the programme).
Bioinformatics analysis typically involves a large number of software and reference data, making the installation process a time-consuming task. This problem is aggravated in a course setting, where every participant needs to have an identical installation, sufficient hardware to run it, and, ideally, access to an identical set-up after the course. If participants use their own laptops, a lot of valuable course time is too often wasted on installation problems.
Ready-to-run VM images and Docker containers containing pre-installed analysis software are gaining momentum in bioinformatics. They can be run on participant’s own computer, or better still on cloud platforms, which typically provide more computing power and memory, required for example for NGS analysis jobs. The additional benefit of using a VM/Docker and cloud is the easy scaling for running tens or hundreds of simultaneous jobs in a course setting.
This workshop introduces several cloud platforms from different countries, and bioinformatics trainers will gain hands-on experience in running VM images and Docker containers in them. The dialogue between bioinformatics trainers and infrastructure providers also allows the latter to gain valuable knowledge on the special needs that bioinformatics training poses.
The workshop is open for any bioinformatics trainer, so please feel free to distribute the information.
- Date: 23-25 May 2016
- Location: The event is organised at the CSC Training Facilities located in the premises of CSC at Keilaranta 14, Espoo, Finland. The best way to reach these is by public transportation; more detailed travel tips are available.
- Language: English
- Registration deadline: 04.05.2016 23:00 Places are filled in registration order and the registration can close earlier if the workshop gets full.
For more information about the programme and practicalities, please see the CSC website.
