SilverLining: A highly scalable cloud-based platform for data distribution and user collaboration

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. is awarded a grant to evaluate the potential for leveraging a cloud-based Platform as a Service (PaaS) for data publication to address myriad challenges currently faced by existing distributed data service architectures such as Distributed Generic Information Retrieval (DiGIR) and TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval (TAPIR). Specific goals are to 1) simplify and reduce the ongoing cost of publishing data, 2) improve data quality at the source, 3) provide scalable, effective access to published data, 4) stimulate innovation by creating a simple, highly scalable platform for new applications for data interaction, and 5) develop a suite of reference applications demonstrating capacities of the new architecture. Metrics comparing the cloud-based solution with the existing, distributed infrastructure currently utilized by the biodiversity informatics community will quantify the relative merits of the two fundamentally different approaches. Low-cost data publishing is the preliminary step to enable applications that promote discovery, analysis, and ultimately new knowledge and education. The approach taken in this project supports all levels of this progression by providing a proof of concept that will demonstrate the viability of the cloud-based solution to current impediments in data publishing, paving the way to deploying these solutions broadly. The solutions will be especially beneficial to researchers or institutions with few resources and/or little technical expertise. The scope of data in the test bed for this project will be based on biodiversity occurrence information, a community with a high priority, well demonstrated and understood need. However, the solutions will be applicable generally to any dynamic data publishing federation, providing a scalable, standards based platform for research, collaboration, training, mentoring, and education.