The e-INFRA CZ computing infrastructure is about more than servers and computing power—it is about the people who rely on it every day to advance their research. Over the past three years, hundreds of researchers have shared their experiences through our user surveys. Their feedback has led to improvements in documentation, communication, technical solutions, and the services they use every day.
What began a few years ago as a small feedback initiative within MetaCentrum has become an integral part of how e-INFRA CZ develops its computing services. Every year, hundreds of researchers from different institutions, scientific fields, and levels of technical expertise share their experiences with us.
Their feedback adds an essential perspective that technical metrics alone cannot provide. It shows us how our services support everyday research, highlights what works well, reveals where improvements are needed, and helps us decide what to focus on next.
How We Collect Feedback
At the beginning of each year, we invite users of our computing services to complete a short questionnaire. To keep the process simple, participants are asked to evaluate only the services they actually used during the previous year.
The survey includes a set of core questions that allow us to track long-term trends in service quality, technical support, documentation, and communication. We also add a dedicated section each year to explore new features, emerging priorities, or planned developments.
While the ratings help us measure satisfaction over time, the most valuable insights often come from the open comments. This is where users explain the challenges they encounter, describe their workflows, and suggest practical improvements. These comments frequently become the starting point for changes that benefit the entire community.
What the Data Tells Us
"Years of collecting feedback have given us a unique dataset that reveals not only how our services evolve over time, but also where we can make the greatest impact."
Service Evaluation
Over the years, our computing services have consistently received high ratings from users. The most noticeable improvement came between 2023 and 2024, when investments in better documentation, clearer communication, and enhanced user support were reflected in higher satisfaction scores.
The results for 2025 show that overall satisfaction has remained high, although the slight plateau and small decline in some areas remind us that user expectations continue to grow. Maintaining excellent services, therefore, requires continuous development rather than one-time improvements.
Fig 1: Average rating of computing services over the years
User Support and Documentation
Another area we track long-term is user satisfaction with technical support and documentation. The data proves that our investments in updating documentation, creating new guides, and expanding support materials are paying off. Furthermore, the quality of our documentation remains a major factor in the overall user experience.
Fig. 2: User documentation ratings in 2024 and 2025
How We Work With the Data
"Our work doesn't end when you submit the questionnaire—in many ways, that's where it begins."
Every survey response becomes part of a broader analysis that helps guide the future development of our services. We combine the results in internal analytical dashboards that allow us to monitor long-term trends, compare individual services, and identify areas that deserve additional attention.
Fig. 3: Internal dashboard featuring questionnaire data
What Numbers Alone Won't Tell Us
"A rating tells us that a problem exists. A comment tells us why it happened and how to fix it."
While numerical ratings help us measure overall satisfaction, the open-ended comments provide the context behind the scores. They regularly contain practical suggestions, detailed descriptions of user experiences, and ideas that would be impossible to capture through predefined survey questions alone.
Every comment is carefully reviewed, categorized, and analysed. Your feedback helps us identify software that should be updated or introduced, documentation that needs clarification, missing tutorials, and situations where the way a service works differs from users' expectations.
Fig. 4: Illustration of categories resulting from open-ended answers.
New Insights From the Data
"Surveys do more than measure satisfaction—they reveal how the way researchers use our services is changing."
One of the most interesting trends we have observed is the growing number of users who combine multiple e-INFRA CZ computing services within a single year, rather than relying on just one. This shift reflects increasingly complex research workflows and highlights the importance of viewing our services as an interconnected ecosystem rather than a collection of independent resources. (Note: This reflects questionnaire data, not direct infrastructure telemetry).
Fig. 5: e-INFRA CZ computing service users – multi-service usage
Tracking how different institutions use our services also helps us better target our communication, training opportunities, and outreach activities, ensuring that information reaches the communities where it is most relevant.
Fig. 6: Service users by affiliation
From Comments to Concrete Changes
"For us, feedback is far more than a survey statistic or an annual report metric. It is a roadmap for improving our services."
Every research field has its own specific requirements, and each service receives its own unique suggestions. Yet, when we analyse responses over several years, clear patterns begin to emerge.
Clearer Documentation and Better Navigation
One of the most common requests from users has been to make our documentation easier to navigate. In response, we have focused on unifying and simplifying how you access information:
- A unified documentation portal: We introduced a central entry point at docs.e-infra.cz/, bringing together documentation for the entire e-INFRA CZ portfolio. The portal provides a consistent structure and makes it easier to discover available services.
- TIP: Users of MetaCentrum, which represents the largest part of our portfolio, can also find a comprehensive overview in the "Documentation and Services" section.
- Smarter search: We have significantly improved the documentation search functionality and deployed a new chatbot to help you find answers faster.
Fig. 7: Signpost to e-INFRA CZ services
Better Support for Beginners
Entering the world of high-performance computing (HPC) and advanced IT services can be challenging, particularly for users with limited experience. To make the first steps easier, we continue to expand the learning resources available to our community:
For MetaCentrum, these include:
- A growing collection of beginner-friendly tutorials that guide users through common tasks step by step.
- A printable PBS Quick Start Guide, providing a convenient reference for everyday work with the scheduler.
- An expanding FAQ section built around real questions submitted through our Request Tracker (RT) support system, ensuring that the answers address the issues users encounter most often.
We are applying the same approach to other services as well. For example, we are currently building a dedicated FAQ for our Kubernetes platform based on the questions and experiences shared by its users.
More Training and Knowledge Sharing
The growing interest in our educational activities shows that users want to actively explore new capabilities. We are meeting this demand by expanding our training calendar and launching new collaborative programs.
MetaCentrum Services: News & Events
- To help users develop their skills, we regularly organise seminars, workshops, and online training sessions. Announcements for upcoming events, together with presentation materials and video recordings from previous courses, are available through the MetaCentrum seminar page.
- We have also launched the MetaCentrum Ambassador programme , which connects experienced users with colleagues at their home institutions. Ambassadors help newcomers get started, share best practices, and strengthen local user communities.
IT4Innovations Courses
For users interested in more advanced topics, IT4Innovations offers a broad portfolio of specialised technical courses covering high-performance computing, data processing, and emerging technologies. Upcoming events and training opportunities are continuously updated through the IT4Innovations calendar.
Save the date: The traditional CESNET Conference and MetaCentrum Seminar will take place this autumn in Prague, from 30 September to 1 October.
Better Communication
Another recurring theme in the survey was the need for clearer and more timely communication about new services, planned maintenance, and infrastructure updates.
In response, we have expanded our communication channels and strengthened the way we share important information with our users.
How to Stay Connected?
- E-INFRA CZ Newsletter: Published three to four times a year, the newsletter highlights new services, upcoming events, user success stories, and other important announcements. Every e-INFRA CZ user receives it automatically, and previous editions remain available in the online archive.
- e-INFRA CZ Blog: Explore the latest trends in computing, advanced data storage, and innovative scientific applications at blog.e-infra.cz.
- Social networks: Follow us on LinkedIn for news, event announcements, and community updates.
- Cooperation with EOSC CZ: We work closely with the national EOSC CZ initiative to coordinate training activities and integrate our services within the wider European Open Science Cloud ecosystem. EOSC newsletter is an excellent source of information about funding opportunities, EOSC developments, and community events.
What's Next?
"User feedback helps us not only identify problems but also uncover topics that deserve attention."
Survey responses often reveal recurring questions or misconceptions about how particular services work. To address these, we are preparing a new series of articles that will explain frequently misunderstood topics and dispel common myths about e-INFRA CZ computing services.
At the same time, individual service teams use the detailed survey results to identify strengths, prioritise improvements, and refine their roadmaps for future development.
Why Your Feedback Matters
"The best infrastructure is not built behind closed doors. It is co-created with its community."
Every questionnaire response represents a real research experience. Collectively, your feedback helps us understand the evolving needs of the scientific community and ensures that we invest our time and resources where they will have the greatest impact.
Not every suggestion can be implemented immediately. Some improvements require significant technical development, careful planning, or long-term investment. Nevertheless, every comment is reviewed, discussed, and considered during roadmap planning.
Over the past few years, thanks to your responses, we have identified dozens of opportunities for improvement—from clearer documentation and expanded training opportunities to software upgrades, new features, and enhancements across our computing services.
The next time you receive an invitation to complete our survey, we hope you will see it as more than just another questionnaire. It is one of the most effective ways to influence the future of the services that support your research.
If you provide specific feedback, we also encourage you to include your contact information. This allows us to discuss your suggestions in greater detail, better understand your research needs, and, as an added bonus, enter you into a prize draw for additional MetaCentrum fairshare.
Thank you to all our users for sharing your experiences and helping us continue to push e-INFRA CZ forward.
