IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center became a member of the iRODS Consortium in 2023, joining such names as BAYER, DDN, Fujifilm and others. The consortium brings together businesses, research organisations, universities, and government agencies from around the world to ensure the sustainability of the iRODS software as a solution for distributed storage, transfer, and management of data. Members cooperate with the consortium to guide further development and innovation, expand its user and developer communities, and provide adequate support and educational resources.
Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System – (iRODS) is an open-source software that is used by research, commercial and government organisations around the world. The iRODS software allows you to store, manage and share large amounts of data, including their metadata, between different organisations and platforms and provides a mechanism for defining rules for their storage, processing and distribution. iRODS is designed to support collaboration, interoperability and scalability of data infrastructures.
IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava is now a member of the iRODS consortium. Martin Golasowski, senior researcher at IT4Innovations, summarised the benefits of membership in the iRODS Consortium: "The demand for a comprehensive solution for fast and efficient data transfer between locations is increasing across the European scientific community. Membership in the iRODS Consortium will enable us to communicate directly with the development team of this solution and provide us with access to the latest features and support in providing these tools not only to the scientific community."
“iRODS provides a virtual file system for various types of data storage, metadata management, and, last but not least, a mechanism for federating geographically distant locations for data transfer. These features are used in the LEXIS Platform, which simplifies the use of powerful supercomputers to run complex computational tasks through a unified graphical interface or using a specialised application interface. The transfer of large volumes of data between supercomputers and data storage is then performed automatically and transparently for those using iRODS and other data management technologies,” adds Golasowski.
"We are very excited to have our friends in the Czech Republic join the Consortium,” said Terrell Russell, Executive Director of the iRODS Consortium. “Their expertise and collaborative insights have already made iRODS better for everyone. We look forward to continued progress working alongside IT4Innovations."
The iRODS software has been deployed at thousands of locations around the world for long-term management of PB data in various industries such as the oil and gas industry, biosciences, physical sciences, archives, and the media and entertainment industry. The development team of the iRODS Consortium is based at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), which is affiliated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States. To learn more about iRODS and the iRODS Consortium, please visit irods.org.