Cuban biopharmaceutical industry opens high-performance computing cluster

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 23 (ACN) The Information Technology Enterprise (ETI) of the BioCubaFarma Business Group opened today in Havana a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster as part of its cooperation links with the universities of Ghent, in Belgium, and Central Marta Abreu of Las Villas.

Karel Barberena Morales, a specialist with the Infrastructure and Communications Division in charge of ETI’s HPC and big data project, said that the Belgian university's donation will considerably increase the entity’s processing and storage capacity, which will lead to the swifter development of goods and services of the Cuban biopharmaceutical industry.

“The new platform will enable the effective automation of processes and boost productivity and performance, so those involve in the supply chain will be able to comply with the regulatory framework and standards,” he stressed. “This investment will contribute significantly to the replacement of imports in terms of infrastructure purchases, promote the efficient use of scientific calculation applications and strengthen the links between industries and universities to foster the production linkages demanded by the national economy.”

During the pandemic, the HPC platform supported the modeling and computational simulation studies of BioCubaFarma’s anti-COVID products and drugs.

Dieter Roefs, director of operations of the University of Ghent’s data center, said in turn that the cluster is a first step of an ongoing process to bolster Cuban infrastructure.

A high-performance computing cluster is a collection of many separate servers operating in tandem. HPC technology allows the modeling and simulation of complex problems and their solution in the shortest possible time thanks to the system’s large computational capacities.