Balancing open science and data privacy with enterprise Red Hat OpenShift AI

What happened

At the OpenShift Commons gathering in Amsterdam on March 23—the high-energy "Day Zero" event of KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Europe 2026—the stage was set for a deep dive into the intersection of cutting-edge technology and global safety. Francesco Giannoccaro, Head of High Performance Computing at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), shared a compelling journey of how an executive agency of the UK Department of Health and Social Care is using open source and AI to protect the public.

Francesco Giannoccaro, Head of High Performance Computing at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) The mission: Guarding public health The UKHSA provides essential health security services underpinned by world-class science and technology, while contributing to the UK’s life sciences sector. One critical example is their Pathogen Genomic Service, which helps hospitals rapidly identify aggressive pathogens through DNA sequencing.

For the UKHSA, technology is not just an administrative tool; it is the engine of life-saving science. They needed an environment that offered enterprise capabilities without requiring a deep dive into complex infrastructure management. The "Black Box" of AI models: Proprietary models can limit transparency and adaptability.