Last week nearly 13,000 people attended SC19, the annual Supercomputing event, which was held in Denver, Colorado this year. GÉANT was present to show the role it plays in topics as high-speed networking and High Performance Computing, but also to showcase the link to the overall description of the convention which is includes networking, storage and analysis. We happen to know a thing or two when it comes to those topics, don’t we?
GÉANT’s presence
By presenting our global map, the audience was intrigued to see how R&E networking connects students and researchers all over the world, giving them the right tools to understand what GÉANT’s role is in Europe, in the US, and globally. For the (predominantly) American audience, our booth and staff served as a perfect introduction to our North American partner Internet2 and ESnet. For audiences interested in HPC in Europe, we were a perfect point of interest to lead them towards PRACE. For specific fields of studies, we were equipped with the perfect tools such as our latest CONNECT magazine, demonstrations, and of course our knowledgeable staff.
Demonstrating a powerful R&E network
A total of four remote concerts were performed at our booth showing how only two CESNET boxes, combined with our powerful R&E network, could enable two musicians located at different cities to play with each other with almost no delay to be heard. Another great demonstration was that of eduMEET, the user-friendly and open source video conferencing tool designed by the community which enables anyone to join a call, anytime.
And we sure love2eduroam..
The biggest hit of SC19 for us? Definitely the eduroam counter. This year our booth included a dedicated screen showing the number of eduroam authentications on each day, and the total of the year. This drew a lot of attention at the convention, as well as on our Twitter account where nearly 8,000 impressions were made on the tweet showing the screen. And how about the number of eduroam authentications at SC19? Well, it is fair to say that 35% of the total WiFi clients were connecting to eduroam! A total of 3,019 eduroam clients from 410 institutions worldwide were there with us!
