More Power and Sustainability for ORFEO: Area Science Park expands its Data Center
Area Science Park has significantly upgraded the hardware infrastructure and computing power of ORFEO, the Data Center that serves as a cornerstone of the organisation’s research and innovation ecosystem. Supported by the PNRR – Mission 4 “Education and Research”, the Data Center expansion marks a major step forward in computing performance and in the delivery of advanced storage and data management services for scientific applications in numerical simulation and artificial intelligence.
A more powerful and sustainable Data Center
The €3 million investment through PNRR funds has enabled the creation of a new 125 kW server room equipped with high-efficiency cooling systems, reducing both the carbon footprint and operational costs. Computing capacity has been enhanced with new servers for simulations and predictive modelling, supported by three AI nodes, each with eight state-of-the-art GPU accelerators. These resources make it possible to train large language models, run computer vision applications, and analyse complex datasets in a fraction of the time. Internal interconnections have been upgraded with ultra-low-latency, high-speed links to ensure smooth data flow even under heavy workloads. Storage capacity has been increased by several petabytes, with the addition of an ultra-fast solid-state memory layer for “hot” datasets, further improving performance and efficiency.
“ORFEO represents a strategic investment for Area Science Park, enabling the full operation of the organisation’s research and technological infrastructures,” explained President Caterina Petrillo. “It manages the entire data lifecycle from our genomics and virology research laboratories, materials microscopy, and soon, from the green energy production demonstrator. ORFEO also provides AI and HPC access and services to companies, driving digital transformation and business competitiveness in coordination with the regional data center network. To sustain excellence and the quality of our data science investments, Area Science Park has developed an advanced training programme for young researchers and technologists”.
A key infrastructure for scientific research
As the digital core of Area Science Park’s research activities, ORFEO supports advanced projects in artificial intelligence, materials science, computational biology, and genomics. Thanks to its high-performance architecture, the Data Center enables researchers to run complex simulations, train large-scale machine learning models, and analyse massive amounts of scientific data in a reproducible and traceable way. The infrastructure also powers a broad research ecosystem focused on AI model interpretability and the energy sustainability of computational processes.
ORFEO hosts automated pipelines integrating high-performance and cloud computing, ensuring data interoperability and faster analysis. Its evolution strengthens collaborations with universities, research institutions, and national and European infrastructures, consolidating Area Science Park’s role as a hub for computational research and digital innovation.
An ally for digital business transformation
Beyond supporting scientific research, ORFEO is a strategic asset for enterprises seeking to innovate through high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. Area Science Park provides consulting services, feasibility studies, and Proof of Concept projects to facilitate the adoption of advanced digital solutions—from numerical simulation to data science—within a secure, high-performance environment.
ORFEO is Area Science Park’s high-performance computing and artificial intelligence Data Center, designed to support scientific research and industrial innovation. Established in 2020 to serve the life sciences, it now functions as a cross-sector platform integrating HPC, AI, and big data management. It enables the training of advanced models, digital twin simulations, and FAIR-compliant data repositories linked to the organisation’s experimental laboratories. The infrastructure provides services in Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) modes, with ready-to-use environments and tools for data science and HPC. The cluster delivers millions of computing hours annually, is connected to national research backbones (LightNet, GARR), and follows open standards to ensure interoperability and security. Technical management is entrusted to the Data Engineering Laboratory (LADE), which brings together expertise in AI, data engineering, and high-performance computing.