Grid technology has been used in science and research for more than a decade and represents a solution to many complex computational problems or experiments. The first cluster in Slovenia was deployed in 2004. With the establishment of the Slovenian Initiative for a National Grid (SLING), of which ARNES is one of the founding members, we have started to connect organizations’ computer centres and users into a national grid network. Today it consists of eight clusters encompassing nearly 10,000 cores. There is no lack of challenges. Differing researchers’ and projects’ needs demand constant adjustment of the implementation environment and agile establishment of centres with various computational resources. SLING has thus been directing development in the direction of a unified agile architecture which will combine cloud, grid and HPC cluster resources. In this lecture we will present the future goals of the Slovenian initiative and several examples of how our cluster has been used in research and education (FRI).

Barbara Krašovec (ARNES) is a systems administrator at ARNES, Slovenian National Research and Education Network. She specialises in the administration and maintenance of virtualised resources, distributed computing clusters, grid networks and grid information systems. She is the systems administrator for SLING Network, Slovenian Initiative for National Grid, a part of EGI, and has been taking part in the EGI-Inspire infrastructure project since 2010.

Matevž Markovič (student) is an interdisciplinary computer science and mathematics studies student at the Faculty of Information and Computer Science and the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Ljubljana. He is an enthusiastic mathematician with an excellent grasp of computing and is keen to improve and enhance his knowledge by testing various theories and mathematical problems and participating in various mathematical/computing projects such as OEIS (On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences).

ARNES’ custom server service extends the possibilities of migrating services and infrastructure to a safe and reliable cloud hosted by ARNES. You can now manage the hosting of powerful servers that can run various operating systems and advanced applications yourself using a simple web interface. Maintenance of the supporting infrastructure will of course be taken care of by ARNES’ experts. Never before has cloud access been this easy.

Jure Kranjc has been employed at the ARNES’ system applications support department since 2009. He is responsible for the areas of server virtualization, cloud services and high performance computer centres. He is also participating in the Slovenian Initiative for a National Grid.

ARNES Mapa is one of ARNES’ experimental cloud services which provides users with storage and universal access to files regardless of their location or the device they are currently using. The service provides automatic file synchronization between all the user’s devices as well as file sharing with selected friends or, indeed, anyone. Some of you may already know about it and use it – for others this presentation might be all that is needed to get started. Regardless of which group you fall into, the new functions we will demonstrate on this occasion will no doubt pleasantly surprise you. We can already reveal that the updates will enhance and extend the possibilities for collaboration between web and mobile users. The second part of the presentation will demonstrate a practical use case illustrating how ARNES Mapa can be used as a learning tool in school.

Jure Kumer (OŠ Poljane nad Škofjo Loko) is a computer fan and teacher at the Poljane nad Škofjo Loko Elementary School. He received his degree from the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana.

Jure Švent has a bachelor’s degree in economics, and experience in the fields of education, information technology and marketing. At ARNES he is a product manager for existing and future services in the System Applications Support group. His primary responsibilities are services visibility and the ongoing improvement of users’ experience.

We will introduce ARNES’ two new services which will enable faster, more efficient and, above all, more quantifiable communication with target audiences. The ARNES Razglas service will simplify the management of various mailing lists and contact administration. Its key advantage is rapid and efficient notification, since your news article or invitation can reach a number of precisely selected e-mail addresses with one click. Action! The effects of your communication can be measured with ARNES Analitika which provides insight into data about your website’s visitors. See which topics and news stories they read, where they come from, how they get lost, and shape your web content accordingly. Reaction!

Jasmina Mešić (SI-CERT, ARNES) works at ARNES and is the coordinator for national public awareness about the information technology programme called Safe on the Internet. She has a degree in media communications from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Maribor.

In order to provide high availability for ICT services it is necessary to take care of quite a few details that are usually invisible to the end user. One of these is redundancy i.e. having backup resources available at both hardware and service levels. An example of this is having dual power supplies, hosting more important servers in two physically discrete locations, etc. In this lecture we will look at the typical equipment and support service implementation required for the uninterrupted operation of our services.

Klemen Andreuzzi (ARNES) has a degree from the Faculty of Computer and Information Science. He has been with ARNES for the past 7 years and is employed in the field of system administration. He puts his extensive knowledge to use in developing the most advanced solutions (DNS, e-mail, firewalls, load balancing, high availability systems, optimizations, etc.) In his free time he devotes himself to computer graphics and computer vision.

Judging by web surveys, WordPress and Joomla are among the favourite open source CMS solutions, so before developing a web page one is often faced with the challenge of which of the two to use. In the past Joomla was often held to be the better choice for developing advanced web pages, and WordPress as a solution for simpler ones and blogs. This is no longer true and WordPress’s growing market share has made it a serious alternative to Joomla.

In this lecture we will use practical examples to demonstrate the key advantages of the WordPress system which boasts simple management and maintenance as well as numerous options for extending web pages’ functionality.

As a freelancer, Marko Lampret (Lampret.net) is involved with the development of web pages using open source CMS solutions, especially Joomla and WordPress.  Over the past decade he has often been responsible for the technical aspect of Slovenian schools’, kindergartens’ and libraries’ web pages in cooperation with ARNES.

ARNES Splet (WordPress) is ARNES’ answer to the increasing number of problems in developing web pages for the organizations that we host and, especially, the need for their complex and continuous maintenance. In this lecture we will demonstrate how we help our users achieve an effective web presence by developing new pages and migrating existing ones to the ARNES Splet service.

Miloš Gajić has worked for ARNES since 2008. He is employed in the user technical assistance department where he is mostly involved in development, testing, system support and educating users about the virtual server hosting service.

The use of CMS has made web content management quick and easy. On the other hand the complexity of such systems makes them a potential target for attackers, especially if a website is not correctly maintained. The consequences of an intrusion can vary widely but their mitigation always takes a significant amount of valuable time. In this lecture we will examine the methods attackers use to gain access to websites, the consequences of such intrusions and, of course, what needs be done to prevent them in the first place.

Tadej Hren (SI-CERT, ARNES) has been with the Slovenian Computer Emergency Response Team where he has been working within ARNES since 2014.  He is responsible for the coordination of solving network security problems.

Research and Education Networks (NRENs and GEANT) are playing an increasing role in knowledge sharing, and their mandate and presence are definitely growing in the education landscape. This talk will explore the possibilities and opportunities offered by initiatives such as Global Classroom, iversity and MOOCs, and discuss the role of R&E networking in Europe. From building distributed architecture to sharing experiences, to providing models for sustainable education, NRENs are called today to a meet the ambitious demands of a crucial community: schools and higher education.

Domenico Vicinanza works at DANTE, Cambridge, UK as network services product manager and arts and humanities manager. He received his MSc and PhD degrees in Physics and he is a professional music composer. He worked for more than 15 years as a researcher and lecturer in universities and music conservatoires in Europe and as a scientific associate at CERN in Geneva. His background includes computing grid sites management, R&D for particle physics detectors, marketing and product management, lecturing and coaching. He is also involved in the application of distributed computing and advanced networking technologies to music and visual arts as the technical coordinator of the ASTRA (Ancient instrument Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) and Lost Sounds Orchestra projects for the reconstruction of musical instruments on GÉANT and EUMEDCONNECT.

The Internet and modern technological solutions are now part of virtually every step of our lives and we often forget about the risks their use exposes us to. In collaboration with several institutions, ARNES has thus prepared a web course to educate users about the dangers they are exposed to when using the Web and technology in general. Through the use of video lectures and quizzes it will also give you the knowledge necessary to protect your devices, personal data, health and the environment. The lecture will examine how the course was set-up in a web classroom environment and alert you to several key pitfalls one is exposed to when using the internet and modern technologies.

Domen Božeglav (ARNES) has been working at ARNES for more than a decade and is also a member of the SAFE-SI safe internet and modern technology use info point. In his free time he is a passionate runner.

Radovan Krajnc (ZRSŠ), educational adviser for computers and information technology at the National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, is always living life on the edge, striking a balance between his job, hobbies and professional development.