Optimization of Italian CMS Computing Centers via MIUR funded Research Projects

The Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR) funded in the past years research projects aimed to an optimization of the analysis activities in the Italian CMS computing Centers. A new grant started in 2013, and activities are already ongoing in 9 INFN sites, all hosting local CMS groups. Main focus will be on the creation of an italian storage federation (via Xrootd initially, and later HTTP) which allows all the italian CMS physicists to a privileged access to CMS data and simulations. Another task will focus on the optimization of the last step of a CMS analysis, via interactive access to resources; this will result in a number of small- to medium-sized analysis centers, where access will be granted at national level to multicore machines, PROOF facilities, high throughput local queues. An important part of this last activity will imply experimenting with on demand analysis machine instantiation via Clouds, using the experience and the resources INFN is building on the subject.