The NDPF is the collection of services that enabled high-throughput data processing at Nikhef and that supports the Dutch National e-Infrastructure. An integral part of the high-speed backbone of Nikhef and closely linked to the other institutes at the Amsterdam Science Park and SURF, it comprises many different functions. The NDPF services are supported by the Nikhef mission and programme resources, and by the Dutch National e-Infrastructure coordinated by SURF for users with a SURF or NWO resource allocation.
The most visible element of the NDPF is probably the 8000+ node compute facility, linked with 1.2Tbit to a 5 PByte high-speed distributed storage cluster running a combination of DPM and dCache. But there are also specialised systems for software development, integration testing, authentication and trust services, and network test systems. Local Nikhef users also have access to Stoomboot, providing further resources.
The Nikhef NDPF is part of the Dutch National e-Infrastructure, coordinated by SURF. It offers high-throughput platform services (grid) and infrastructure access characterised by bottle-neck free interconnects and high retrieval performance. Nikhef NDPF operates an open private peering policy for data-intensive academic institutions.