As an innovative and agile institution in central information processing for the KIT, the SCC is used to anticipate and find answers to important future questions of digitization in a globally active scientific institution. At this point, however, a look back is allowed. Ten years ago today, the Scientific Computing Center (SCC) was officially founded.
From the very beginning, SCC has consistently combined research and services in such a way that research findings flow into the design and development of its IT services and infrastructure, and vice versa, research benefits from the close interlinking. The founding history, the organizational structure at that time, the tasks and visions are described in detail in the first edition of SCC News 1/2008.
Today, the SCC positions itself as a center for data-intensive computing and the analysis of large scale data with high national and international visibility as well as an innovative and agile IT service provider for the KIT and for external parties. The SCC regularly informs about news on research and projects, services and innovation, studies and knowledge transfer online and in the SCC-News.
Success bears the name Change
The SCC is part of the immense process of change initiated by the foundation of KIT in October 2009 and continues until today. "We at the SCC live a continuous process of renewal and change and are pleased to be able to support the KIT in the best possible way, also through our continuous further development in scientific, technological and organisational terms" is the joint view of the SCC Board of Directors with Martin Frank, Bernhard Neumair, Martin Nussbaumer and Achim Streit. From September 2017, the merger of the Administration IT and SCC took effect, thus broadening the range of tasks to cover other important topics (see online news).
The spectrum of tasks of SCC at KIT and beyond
SCC is a central scientific institution of KIT in connection with tasks in research, teaching and innovation and provides comprehensive services within the KIT and for external parties. These tasks include in detail:
- Research and development in the fields of scientific computing and data analysis, management of large-scale research data and data-intensive computing as well as security in IT federations.
- Operation of the ICT infrastructure and provision of the basic IT equipment of the KIT in conjunction with other system operators and service providers in the organizational units of the KIT as part of a cooperative supply system.
- Development and provision of IT application systems, management of application software, training of users and administrators as well as end device support
- Operation of large-scale equipment for scientific high-performance computing and data-intensive sciences within the framework of secure IT federations
Acknowledgment
A motto of the founding years of the SCC was "coming together first - and then working together"[1]. That this is a good approach has been proven over time. "We are glad that everyone in the SCC lives a respectful, very collegial and honest coexistence. In this way, we can best meet the new and challenging demands of the ongoing digitization process at KIT and science in general. This is a great gift," says the SCC Board of Directors.
The SCC would like to thank colleagues, customer and user groups at KIT and in the state as well as partner institutions from teaching, research and innovation for the pleasant and constructive cooperation over the past ten years.
[1] based on the quote from Henry Ford, American carmaker: "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."