The SODALITE project, in which we worked with 8 international partners towards the optimized management of hybrid infrastructures and developed tools for easier and faster development, deployment, operation and execution of heterogeneous applications, has come to an end.
SODALITE holds a special place for us, because over the past 3 years we have not only had the invaluable opportunity to expand our IT automation and management expertise, and collaborate with inspiring partners, but we have also been trusted with the privilege and (big!) responsibility of taking the lead in a major project. Read more about the project here.
Increasing simplicity in heterogeneous systems
SODALITE worked on solving the deployment problem over existing infrastructure, focusing specifically on application management and performance, simplifying the development and execution of applications in heterogeneous environments, including hybrid cloud, edge, and HPC.
XLAB’s role in the project, in addition to coordination, was to share and deepen our expertise in orchestration, automation and deployment, and lightweight execution environments. We developed and improved our xOpera project, which provides a set of tools for cloud application orchestration and automation, including opera orchestrator, a lightweight, open source and state-aware orchestrator based on Ansible, a highly popular and versatile IT configuration management tool, and enabling full application lifecycle management. A simple idea that started with an EU research project, has evolved over the years into a set of life-cycle management tools, helping optimize deployment process, reduce the human factor and speed up the preparation of deployment scripts.
“During the lifetime of SODALITE, we learned a lot about orchestrating and refactoring many types of target infrastructures, including support for semantics, code smells, and many other interesting technologies. But what matters the most is the fact that we have learned and grown every day," explains XLAB project manager Nejc Bat.
Managing infrastructure requires keeping up with and making the most of the latest trends to optimize and maximize resources and successfully compete in global markets. By taking part in projects such as SODALITE, we stay in the loop and deepen our knowledge in the field. This makes it easier for us to help companies that are not able to cope with the speed and complexity of trends on their own.
Leading the team towards the goal
This was the second time we had the honor of coordinating a European research project. And to add a humble brag, we were also the first Slovenian coordinator of a Horizon 2020 project 😉
Although it can be challenging to step into the shoes of coordinator, in the end everything turned out great and we gained a lot of valuable experience. The coordination of the project went smoothly and successfully, thanks to the amazing partners HLRS - High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, ATOS, Politecnico di Milano, Adaptant Solutions AG, IBM, Information Technologies Institute (ITI), Jheronimus Academy of Data Science, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). We hope and look forward to work together on other interesting projects in the future!
