What I Did

The Human Brain Project at EPFL needed a multi-datacenter cloud platform to support neuroscience research collaboration across Europe. 20+ applications, 400+ VMs, 4 datacenters in 4 countries. I built and ran the whole thing solo.

Multi-Datacenter OpenStack

Deployed OpenStack across:

• CSCS (Switzerland) – cscs.ch
• Juelich (Germany) – fz-juelich.de
• CINECA (Italy) – cineca.it
• BSC (Spain) – bsc.es

PaaS Layer

OpenShift/Kubernetes clusters with GitLab and Harbor (Docker registry) so internal teams and project partners could deploy their own applications without waiting on infrastructure tickets.

Automation and Monitoring

• Ansible/AWX for provisioning and configuration
• GitLab CI for pipelines
• Keycloak for identity federation (OpenID)
• Zabbix for monitoring
• Zammad for ticketing

What I Learned

Solo infrastructure management at this scale forces you to document everything. Cross-datacenter consistency isn’t optional when researchers in four countries depend on the platform. And automation isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s the only way one person can keep 400 VMs running.