Virtual machines are dedicated and isolated computing environments, customizable in terms of CPU, memory, storage, and operating system. They can be used for:
- Scientific applications and numerical simulations;
- Software development and testing;
- Web services and project-specific applications;
- Teaching activities and virtual laboratories.
Virtual machines can be sized according to project requirements. As a guideline:
- Small: 2 vCPU, 4–8 GB RAM, 40–100 GB storage – for lightweight services, development, and testing environments;
- Medium: 4–8 vCPU, 16–32 GB RAM, 100–300 GB storage – for scientific applications, databases, and moderately complex data analysis;
- Large: 16+ vCPU, 64+ GB RAM, dedicated or high-performance storage – for numerical simulations, intensive computational workloads, or critical services.
Configurations can be adjusted and scaled over time to match the evolving needs of the project.
The main Linux distributions used in academic and scientific environments are available, including Ubuntu LTS, Debian, Rocky Linux, and Alma Linux.
For advanced users, it is possible to request the activation of a “virtual datacenter” to independently create and manage virtual machines. Using a control panel similar to Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, users can create and manage virtual machines, customizing them in every aspect.