I recently attended ITNOG 10, the annual meeting of the Italian Network Operators Group, which gathers engineers, researchers, and operators working on internet infrastructure, routing, and large-scale network systems.
There were many workshops and talks across different tracks, covering topics from modern network operations and automation to optical transport, BGP engineering, and large-scale infrastructure design. Many of these concepts were new to me, especially in areas like optical networking and programmable infrastructure, which made the sessions both challenging and insightful.
During the event, I was lucky enough to get most questions of a Kahoot challenge right, which resulted in being selected among the top 28 participants for a special prize: an exclusive visit to the Leonardo supercomputer.
The visit was specifically focused on Leonardo, one of Europe’s most advanced high performance computing systems. Being able to see it up close, even in a limited and controlled setting, was an impressive experience from a technical standpoint.
What stood out most was the scale and engineering behind it: dense compute infrastructure, industrial-grade cooling, and the level of design required to sustain large-scale HPC workloads. It’s one thing to study distributed systems in theory, but another to see the physical reality of them operating at this level.
The experience also highlighted how tightly networking, compute, and storage systems must be integrated in modern HPC environments, where performance and reliability are engineered at every layer.
Overall, ITNOG 10 was an excellent opportunity to explore the current state and future direction of internet infrastructure, while also stepping into areas, like optical transport, automation frameworks, and observability systems, that I had not previously encountered in depth.
The visit to Leonardo was a rare and valuable extension of that experience, connecting networking concepts directly to one of the most advanced compute systems currently in operation.
A sincere thank you to the ITNOG organizers for the event and for the opportunity to take part in such an experience.
