CICI: RDP: SAMPRA: Scalable Analysis, Management, and Protection of Research Artifacts

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Current computing systems that support research on sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information, are frequently single-purpose and rely on ad-hoc approaches to data protection and management. This project develops system called SAMPRA: Scalable Analysis, Management, and Protection of Research Artifacts. SAMPRA's goal is to provide a compliant research computing platform that supports diverse, inter-disciplinary, collaborative research on protected data. SAMPRA leverages modern virtualization technology to enable the decentralized management of protected computing enclaves that can be customized to the needs of each specific research project. In addition, the project trains researchers and students on best practices for managing and analyzing protected data, and technical staff on how to customize environments to the needs of individual research groups. SAMPRA investigates multiple techniques to meet these goals, with the overall technical goal of understanding the technical and administrative tradeoffs between isolating and sharing protected research infrastructure services. First, SAMPRA systematically virtualizes hardware, software, and network resources to provide a flexible system architecture that supports research computing with varying analysis, management, and protection needs. SAMPRA also provides virtual data transfer nodes to interface protected environments with external data acquisition systems, with the goal of supporting modern data-intensive research projects using central institutional resources. The project develops exemplar computing, data analysis, and data management virtual environments, and integrating these with institutional systems for managing protected data. These exemplar systems are also the examples used in workshops that train researchers on the use of SAMPRA to support research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.