The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has squared off with the Western Cape government over claims the area's data centre facility will host data generated by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.
The DST says the issue of where SKA data will be hosted is still under investigation.
In a statement, the DST says once the radio telescope project is live, it will require vast computing and data management services as well as infrastructure; however, planning and providing for these is the responsibility of the international SKA organisation.
The department explains: "Detailed infrastructure requirements are still under development, including those for data management and high-performance computing, decisions on which will be made by an international organisation that itself is still under development."
"...there is currently no SKA plan for a data centre in the Western Cape, since all plans for computing and data management requirements in the SKA are still under development," says the DST.
WCape hits back
Last week, ITWeb reported the Western Cape government is embarking on a project to build a R453 million data centre in Cape Town that will host data generated by the SKA telescope.
According to a provincial government statement, "the facility is intended to serve as a host for the SKA's computing and data storage requirements as well as for others".
Western Cape minister of economic opportunities, Alan Winde, said in the statement: "The facility will house the systems we need to process and store the data we receive from, among others, the SKA SA, who are key partners in the project."
The provincial government also noted its data centre project is a joint initiative between the National Department of Science and Technology, the SKA SA and the University of Cape Town, among others.
DST deputy director-general Thomas Auf Der Heyde says the department has not entered into a joint partnership with the Western Cape government, SKA SA and the University of Cape Town (UCT) to host SKA's computing and data storage requirements.
However, in a statement, the ministry of economic opportunities told ITWeb the Western Cape government has developed and released the technical specifications for a big data facility in the province, in collaboration with a range of role-players, including SKA SA and UCT.
"We are fully aware that no firm decisions have been made with regards to locations for SKA SA. However, due to this province's existing focus on big data, these partners assisted in the development of the request for interest (RFI). The information we gather during the RFI process is critical to shaping the future of the big data project," stated the ministry of economic opportunities.
National importance
The SKA project is an international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope to be hosted in SA and Australia. SA's Karoo desert in the Northern Cape will host the core of the mid-frequency dish array, ultimately extending over the African continent.
Eventually, the SKA will be made up of thousands of dishes that will enable astronomers to survey the universe in detail and survey the entire sky much faster, and in more detail, than any system currently in existence.
SA will host about 200 parabolic dishes and Australia more than 100 000 "dipole" antennas.
The SKA telescope will be built in two main phases, with construction of phase one planned to start in 2017/18 and some elements operational by 2020 and full operation under way in 2025.
Storage conundrum
While the DST notes no final plans have been formulated regarding domestic data management services and infrastructure for SKA, there are fears this data will be shipped and hosted overseas.
The SKA telescope will generate unprecedented amounts of data and a significant fraction of the data will need to be stored long-term in data centres.
Pundits say the data produced by the SKA telescope will require really fast processing filters to 'clean' raw streaming data, and huge amounts of storage space. The amount of data produced is also expected to grow exponentially over time.
According to Auf Der Heyde, questions about the adequacy of data centre facilities that will support the SKA project are not unique to SA. "...the SKA project requires massive development in respect of cyber infrastructure, computational and data management technologies and capacities not only at the regional and national level, but indeed at the global level."
He adds: "The search for and development of appropriate technological and institutional responses to the computational and data management demands of the project at both the national and global level will certainly result in the establishment of numerous partnerships around cyber infrastructure. The DST anticipates establishing mutually beneficial partnerships to design, develop and establish the required cyber infrastructure, and where synergistic interests present themselves, there is no reason to exclude the possibility of partnerships, even if we cannot predict them at this point in time."
Economic boost
The Western Cape says its big data facility project is part of a larger economic development infrastructure programme which seeks to improve competitiveness in the region.
Winde explained in the statement issued last week that developing the data centre facility is in part to harness the power of real-time data to grow the economy and attract investment into the region.
The provincial government noted it is not going about establishing the data centre alone. Private sector players in the technology space have been invited to provide information on the best model for the data centre, in terms of how it is built and operated. Winde stated he wants to receive advice from private sector experts before putting the final bid documents together.
"Apart from the big data requirements that may be presented by SKA SA, we have identified many opportunities for big data in some sectors in the region, such as health, agriculture and retail, the green economy, financial services, oil and gas, tourism, and film and media.
"Big data presents significant opportunity for jobs growth in the Western Cape, and indeed, in South Africa. It is unfortunate that conflicting information has been released and we trust that all role-players will continue to collaborate to take this initiative forward," according to the ministry of economic opportunities.
Although it cannot be determined how the international SKA organisation may wish to interact with South African data and computational centres at this stage, it seems reasonable to assume that the organisation would try to utilise locally available expertise and infrastructure where this is of advantage to the international project and the operations of the SKA telescope, Auf Der Heyde concludes.
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