U-LITE: 6 years of scientific computing at LNGS

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). Groups running such experiments have diverse needs, and adopt different approaches in developing the computing frameworks that support their activities. Since the emergence of the Cloud paradigm, the Computing and Network Service has built on its experience in operating and managing the LNGS computing infrastructure to develop U-LITE, a 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. Over the last 6 years U-LITE has proved as a valuable tool for the LNGS experiments, and provides an example of effective use of the Cloud computing approach in a real scientific context.