The evolution of INFN's Cloud Platform: Improvements in Orchestration and User Experience

The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) has recently implemented and made available to the supported communities and experiments a national cloud platform to enhance access to distributed computing and storage resources for scientific researchers. A critical aspect of this initiative is the INFN Cloud Dashboard, a user-friendly web portal that allows users to request high-level services on demand, such as Jupyter Hub, Kubernetes, and Spark clusters and others. The platform is based on INDIGO-PaaS middleware, which integrates a TOSCA-based orchestration system. This system supports a lightweight federation of cloud sites and automates resource scheduling for optimal resource allocation. Through the internal INFN DataCloud project and the support from European initiatives like interTwin and Ai4EOSC and initiatives connected with the national PNRR strategic plan, INFN is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of its PaaS system to adapt to evolving technologies and replace outdated software components. To further improve the orchestration system, INFN is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to enhance deployment scheduling. Additionally, the dashboard, serving as a user interface for orchestrating and deploying services, has recently undergone significant renovations to boost usability and security. This contribution aims to highlight key advancements in the PaaS orchestration system designed to offer a reliable, scalable, and user-friendly environment for the computational needs of the scientific community.