Bioinformatics Core Facility
The Bioinformatics Core Facility (BCF) provides a centralized IT-infrastructure for high-throughput data analysis.
Profile
One of the BCF's key tasks is the structured acquisition and storage of experimental data and – to the greatest possible extent – the automated processing of that data. It is achieved with the aid of a compute cluster that accesses the required data via high-performance network links on storage and database systems.
Computing Infrastructure
In addition to a flexibly deployable general purpose compute cluster the BCF operates several special purpose computer systems in order to be able to cope with the ever increasing requirements for complex bioinformatics analyses. Within the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen was selected as one of the sites for hosting the de.NBI Cloud - a fully academic cloud, that offers access to large-scale storage and computing resources free of charge for academic users.
Global Access
All services provided by the BCF are accessible from almost everywhere in the world by either web interfaces or directly via remote command line login. Deploying virtualization technology it is possible to allocate specific ressources to individual users which represents a convenient and cost-effective tool for national and international collaboration that often involves the processing of huge data sets.