U-LITE, a Private Cloud Approach for Particle Physics Computing

The computing infrastructure of Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the primary platform for data storage, analysis, computing and simulation of the LNGS-based experiments, which are part of the research activities of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). Scientific collaborations running such experiments have diverse needs and adopt different approaches in developing the computing frameworks that support their activities. The emergence of resource virtualization and the cloud paradigm has allowed a complete change to the way of operating and managing the LNGS computing infrastructure, and realize U-LITE, a private versatile environment apt at hosting such varied ecosystem and providing LNGS scientific users a familiar computing interface which hides all the complexities of a modern data center management. Since 2011, U-LITE has proven to be a valuable tool for the LNGS experiments, and provides an example of effective use of a private Cloud computing approach in a real scientific context.