FCCN, the digital services of the Foundation for Science and Technology, spoke with the community to review the work carried out over the past year and expectations for 2025.
We heard the testimony of Pedro Vale Pinheiro, head of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Infrastructure Division at the University of Coimbra (UC), who considers FCCN a partner in problem-solving and in constant collaboration.
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How has FCCN contributed to your work and that of your institution over the past year?
FCCN's services are highly diverse and important to the academic community in general, and UC benefits from them and strives to make the most of them, which greatly contributes to our continued status as a leading institution.
The FCCN has also played a crucial role in the ICT services of higher education institutions (HEIs). It has been a guiding light and motivator for good operational and management practices across various information technologies, without which our work would be much more difficult.
On the other hand, holding shared discussion events, such as the FCCN Conferences, are essential to create a privileged channel of communication and sharing between the various elements of ICT and Higher Education Institutions.
Which services had the biggest impact on your work in 2024 and why?
Over the past year, some of the services I highlight for their significant impact are those covered by the Division I have the privilege of leading, namely IP and Fiber services. I also highlight the truly exceptional, swift, cooperative, and assertive way in which FCCN handled the various fiber optic outages that the UC suffered as a result of ongoing construction work in the city.
I also highlight the secondary DNS service that allowed for an additional domain address resolution server, which made the UC more resilient to service failures.
Colibri enabled efficient communication between colleagues and the holding of remote classes. Even though the University of Coimbra (UC) has created an internal videoconferencing system dedicated exclusively to its needs, this digital service from the FCT has proven to be an excellent alternative.
And finally, while I can't praise them all, I'd like to highlight the SSL certificate service, which guarantees the security of the websites used by UC, as well as VoIP, which has made an essential contribution to the operation of UC and has allowed for a significant reduction in call costs.
In your opinion, what is the FCCN's greatest impact on the scientific, teaching, and research ecosystem in Portugal?
At a scientific level, the FCCN has once again proven to be essential in the search for balanced and advantageous solutions for Higher Education Institutions. For example, with the OCRE, these institutions can obtain truly advantageous prices and services for the use of computing in Cloud.
In the field of supercomputing, where UC is very well represented, we found FCCN to be an excellent partner for sharing experiences and obtaining funding and advanced technological solutions.
And in the area of knowledge, b-on, with integration with the federated RCTSaai, has given us a unique and secure way to access scientific articles regardless of where we are physically located.
But I could continue to list the technical issues without being able to cover all the services provided.
Was there any news or moment at FCCN that you would like to highlight?
The moment that most impacted me was at the FCCN 2024 Conference, when it was announced that the next edition of the event would be held at the University of Coimbra. We're working hard to make this year's event even better (if that's even possible).
What are your ambitions for the future relationship between FCCN and your educational institution? And what are your expectations for 2025?
The expectation for 2025 is, logically, that the FCCN 2025 Conference at the University of Coimbra will be the best ever! However, my ambition for the relationship between the University of Coimbra and the FCCN is that we can maintain this long-standing partnership, sharing contacts, knowledge, and goodwill.
