European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Grenoble-based scientific facility, one of the largest synchrotrons in the world, allows for collaboration between 19 European countries, and makes local technology and resources available remotely to scientists worldwide.

About the Company

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), located in Grenoble, France, is a joint scientific facility shared by 18 European countries that collaborate on the use of generated light beams to make new discoveries about a wide range of materials-from biomolecules to nanomagnets. ESRF is one of the top 3 largest synchrotrons in the world and employs 600 people and hosts 6,000 researchers annually to carry out experiments. In one particular experiment, a European team of scientists revealed the chemical structure of zeolite for the first time, creating more every day uses for the substance. This ambitious collaboration of ESRF creates the synergy needed to carry out advanced scientific research to find solutions for technological, scientific, and human problems that we deal with everyday.

The Challenge

It was difficult or impossible for some scientists located in other parts of the world to travel the distance to gain access to the technology and resources available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Unlimited remote services were needed to allow users to run Unix graphical applications from home or any other remote location. These applications were needed to control the ESRF accelerator and debug beamline control computer problems. With these advanced applications, their previous remote access solution via a VPN connection was slow and not easy to generalize for a large group of people. Application delivery needed to be easy to use from home without the help of administrators, offer high performance including speed, and provide unlimited remote services.

The Solution

Following a presentation from Value Partner, Tempo Consulting, ESRF chose NoMachine NX as their new remote access solution because it provides users with application deployment from home, easy installation of the NX Client, and the speed they need to work effectively. Now with simple-to-install and use NX, scientists can receive applications and perform research from home or their remote institute within minutes, without the need for heavy support. They now have the ability to easily access the software which controls the beamline from anywhere with the power of NX. Traveling to the ESRF is no longer required, as NX’s mobile connectivity allows scientists to connect to the ESRF environment, access their software through the NX Client, and analyze data from their home laboratories.

This research performed by geographically dispersed scientists can be a very long and intense process. NX's session resiliency allows scientists to run long duration applications and continue to access and follow them from home. Furthermore, almost all of ESRF’s applications run on Unix systems; since NX is made for this type of environment, it is more efficient and effective than most popular competing remote access solutions. Locally, ESRF uses GNOME or KDE; users can easily access either with NX, and have the same environment no matter what their location, allowing them to work productively without being at the lab.

Results

NoMachine's NX Enterprise Server has been a perfect remote access solution for the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility providing their users with the desktop virtualization and application delivery they need, whether on or off site. ESRF users are enthusiastic about the remote access performance of NX and believe it’s the best they have ever seen for their needs. With NX, instead of coming on-site, users can easily and conveniently access the software at the ESRF from home or another remote institute to control the beamline. Due to the success of NX, conducting experiments remotely this way will soon become standard operation at the ESRF.

System Administrator, Didier Gervaise, says "Our positive experience with NX has led us to the decision to increase our use. In one month alone, we had hundreds of users from across the globe register for access to the ESRF system using NoMachine NX and this number continues to grow."

About NoMachine NX Enterprise Server

A fully-featured Unix terminal server and desktop consolidation tool allowing users to create, manage and operate an unlimited number of virtual desktop sessions on a single server. Perfect for companies which need to offer a complete set of corporate services to all mobile and on-site employees.