INFN CNAF

INFN CNAF
Name	CNAF
Native name	Centro Nazionale per la Ricerca e lo Sviluppo nelle Applicazioni Informatiche dell'INFN
Established	1990s
Location	Bologna, Italy
Type	Research computing center
Parent organization	Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare

Contents

History
Organization and Governance
Facilities and Infrastructure
Services and Research Support
Major Projects and Collaborations
Outreach and Education
See also

INFN CNAF Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Centro Nazionale per la Ricerca e lo Sviluppo nelle Applicazioni Informatiche is the computing centre of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare located in Bologna, serving as a national hub for high-performance computing, data management, and grid services supporting experiments such as ATLAS (particle detector), CMS experiment, LHCb, and projects connected to CERN, European Grid Infrastructure, and European research infrastructures. CNAF provides computing resources, storage, and network services that integrate with initiatives like PRACE, EGI, OpenAIRE, GÉANT, and collaborates with universities including University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Padua, and research institutions such as INFN Sezione di Milano, INFN Sezione di Pisa, and Gran Sasso Science Institute.

History

CNAF was created during the expansion of distributed computing for particle physics in the 1990s, coordinating with milestones such as the development of the World Wide Web at CERN, the commissioning of the Large Hadron Collider, and the formation of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. Throughout the 2000s CNAF evolved alongside projects like the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, the rollout of Grid computing frameworks, and collaborations with national initiatives including Istituto Superiore di Sanità and regional efforts in Emilia-Romagna. Major timelines include upgrades concurrent with ATLAS (particle detector) data taking, contributions to Higgs boson analyses, and participation in pan-European efforts exemplified by Horizon 2020 funding and coordination with European Research Council-backed projects.

Organization and Governance

CNAF operates within the governance structures of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare with oversight from boards and committees analogous to those at CERN Council and national advisory bodies like Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca. Its management interfaces with directors of INFN sections such as INFN Sezione di Bologna, scientific coordinators from experiments including ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), governance entities in European Grid Infrastructure, and technical groups tied to standards bodies like Open Grid Forum. Strategic planning aligns with priorities from institutions including European Commission directorates and consortia such as EUDAT.

Facilities and Infrastructure

The CNAF campus hosts data centers equipped with high-density compute clusters, tape libraries, and network nodes connecting to research backbones like GÉANT and national networks such as GARR. Hardware and software deployments support architectures comparable to those at CERN Data Centre, with storage systems interfacing to CASTOR (software), object stores, and tape systems used in archival workflows for experiments including CMS experiment and ATLAS (particle detector). CNAF’s infrastructure includes virtualization and container orchestration platforms analogous to Kubernetes deployments used at European Organization for Nuclear Research, and monitoring stacks influenced by tools from Nagios, Prometheus (software), and ELK Stack integrations.

Services and Research Support

CNAF delivers services such as batch scheduling, data replication, distributed analysis tools, and identity federations interoperating with eduGAIN and authentication services like OAuth integrations adopted by projects across European Open Science Cloud. User support encompasses middleware stacks used by Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, data preservation strategies informed by FAIR data principles, and computational workflows used in analyses by teams from institutions such as University of Cambridge, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, and INFN Sezione di Napoli. CNAF provides consultancy for software development, security operations coordinated with CERT teams, and training aligned with curricula from European Organization for Nuclear Research training programmes.

Major Projects and Collaborations

CNAF is a core partner in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid and contributes to experiments at CERN including ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), ATLAS (particle detector), CMS experiment, and LHCb. It participates in European initiatives such as European Grid Infrastructure, PRACE, EOSC-Hub, EUDAT, and collaborative research with laboratories like DESY, Fermilab, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. CNAF has also collaborated on multi-disciplinary projects involving European Space Agency, climate modelling groups, and bioinformatics consortia associated with institutions like European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Outreach and Education

CNAF engages in outreach through partnerships with universities including University of Bologna and public events hosted with cultural institutions such as Museo della Specola and science festivals like Festival della Scienza; it provides training for students from technical schools, postgraduate researchers associated with Gran Sasso Science Institute, and summer programmes referenced by consortia including CERN Summer Student Programme. Educational activities include workshops aligned with software carpentry initiatives, hackathons in collaboration with OpenAIRE and dissemination efforts coordinated with European Research Council grantees.