Earlier today, Licia Florio, Senior Strategy and Policy Officer at NORDUnet, delivered an ispiring keynote at the 18th CHPC National Conference, in Gqeberha, South Africa.
The audience gained valuable insights from her talk, titled Building Global Federated Infrastructure in the R&E Community.
The theme of this year’s conference, Cyberinfrastructure Collaboration: Towards Accelerated Impact, emphasizes the importance of partnerships within the research and education community, both locally and globally. Licia’s keynote perfectly aligned with this theme, drawing from her nearly two decades of experience in trust and identity infrastructures.
Her presentation delved into how the R&E community successfully deployed global federated infrastructures starting with the network. She highlighted the critical role of Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructures (AAIs) in providing secure, privacy- preserving access to shared resources, and how the AAIs have evolved to support more flagships initiatives, such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and EuroHPC.
One of the key takeaways of her talk was the emphasis on the pivotal role of trust in the global research and education community and its significance as a driver for innovation.
“The R&E community has been a pioneer in implementing federated identity management on a large scale, with eduroam being a prime example. Trust serves as the cornerstone that enables our community to connect people, share data and resources, collaborate, and innovate. Thanks to the work done in the AARC projects, and to GÉANT the CoreAAI platform modelled on the AARC blueprint, we have started to build an identity layer that is able to support a wide range of use-cases. The coming years will be pivotal for NRENs and the future of R&E federations.”
Her presentation not only delved into technical advancements but also provided valuable lessons learned from large-scale collaborations such as the recent delivery of the EOSC EU node and the upcoming EuroHPC federation platform, inspiring attendees to think critically about the future of R&E infrastructures.
We are proud to have Licia represent NORDUnet at this prestigious event, showcasing her expertise and leadership and the Nordic commitment to fostering trust and collaboration within the global R&E community.
The CHPC National Conference continues through December 4, offering more opportunities to explore the latest advancements in HPC, big data, and cyber infrastructure.
