" Co-financed to the tune of 1.7 million euros by Wallonia, ULB’s new data center therefore houses both the University’s information systems and a supercomputer specifically designed for AI," emphasizes Annemie Schaus, Rector of the Free University of Brussels. " Structured mainly around open source technologies, it represents a major step forward in terms of digital sovereignty, both for the University and for academic research. Thanks to CECI, the consortium for intensive computing equipment, all the universities in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation can now run artificial intelligence and big data models on this ULB infrastructure. This opens up new prospects for research in all fields: from the humanities and social sciences to the exact sciences, not forgetting, of course, healthcare ".
A modern IT hosting environment at A6K
" The old data center on the Solbosch campus dates back to the 1970s and was no longer up to today’s standards. It became essential to reinvest in a modern, sustainable infrastructure," explains Philippe Briat, Director of the IT Department at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He continues: "The project was launched by ULB, and very quickly initial funding was proposed by Wallonia, which saw a strategic opportunity in the region’s digital development. The city of Charleroi, committed to digital investment, quickly emerged as an ideal location. The A6K site, already chosen by several technology players such as CENAERO, was selected as the natural location for the project".The new computing center (DC A6K) consists of 18 large-scale computer cabinets, housing ULB’s IT equipment as well as that of its partners. Belnet, the Internet service provider for Belgian public institutions, has also installed a point of presence in the DC A6K, reinforcing their national network in the Charleroi region.
A supercomputer for AI research
Among the IT equipment, the DC A6K houses the latest generation of CECI-ULB’s supercomputer, named Lyra and specialized in scientific calculations based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).Scientists can efficiently deposit and process large quantities of data on Lyra, and build models using techniques based on Machine Learning, Deep Learning and neural networks. These models are then used on data to be analyzed in order to detect patterns or make predictions. The fields of application are vast: medical diagnostics based on images of patient cells or tissues, identification of promising molecules in the development of new drugs, modeling of protein structures, design of new materials, prediction of meteorological phenomena on a global scale, development of autonomous robots, etc.
Lyra is a Tier-2 supercomputer, with 23 computing nodes and 46 graphics processing units (GPUs). This gives researchers the computing power they need for a wide range of AI-based research projects. One of Lyra’s original features is the use of virtualized compute nodes, with no loss of performance. The use of virtual machines, deployed on physical computing servers, offers great agility and continuous scalability over time: computing resources can be rapidly reorganized to meet the changing needs of scientists.
The new Lyra supercomputer is interconnected with the other supercomputers at the universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and is accessible to all researchers at Belgium’s French-speaking universities and members of CECI (Consortium des équipements de calcul intensif). Lyra also serves as a springboard for scientists wishing to carry out larger-scale calculations on the Walloon supercomputer Lucia, a Tier-1 supercomputer managed by Cenaero. Lucia is located right next to the DC A6K.
A secure, scalable, sovereign institutional hosting platform
ULB’s IT Department has also deployed an IT platform, called Hyperion, which hosts ULB research data, custom-designed computing environments for the laboratories, as well as central ULB environments such as the ULB public site and its Intranet, or its SAP platform.The implementation of Hyperion has enabled us to develop a portfolio of services accessible to the ULB community, facilitating and simplifying access to IT resources. Hyperion is also highly adaptable, enabling it to evolve in line with the needs of ULB’s researchers, teaching staff and administration.
"We have set up an IT infrastructure inspired by the practices of hyperscalers such as Amazon, Google or Microsoft Azure data centers, while maintaining a human scale and academic governance. The key term here is Infrastructure-as-code. This vision calls for the deployment of distributed, virtualized and fully automated software solutions. This approach guarantees great agility and adaptability. Today, for example, we can deploy and redeploy the Lyra supercomputer in a single order and in less than 8 hours," explains Raphaël Leplae , Director of the Technology Division, ULB IT Department.
The strategy pursued by the IT teams includes the use of non-proprietary hardware and Open Source solutions for all IT layers. This strategy offers great flexibility in the choice of technologies and much freer scalability. The solutions implemented also guarantee sovereignty over the data and IT solutions hosted in the DC A6K.
A platform mindful of its carbon footprint
The DC A6K provides a modern, secure and resilient hosting environment for ULB’s IT: protection against short- and long-term power cuts, redundant cooling system, fire detection & extinguishing, surveillance system, access control, etc.Its construction is in line with ULB’s policy of reducing its carbon footprint as much as possible. Thanks to its high energy efficiency, with a Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) of 1.2, the DC minimizes energy losses. What’s more, from 2026 onwards, the heat produced by the IT equipment will be recovered to heat the offices in the A6K building.
