CC* Compute: A Customizable, Reproducible, and Secure Cloud Infrastructure as a Service for Scientific Research in Southern California

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This project creates a hybrid cloud infrastructure as a scientific computing gateway that promotes and supports inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional research in science, engineering, biomedicine, and the social sciences. The hybrid cloud platform also promotes regional and national research collaboration, as a portion of the resources is integrated into the Open Science Grid (OSG). Many institutes with multi-institutional research projects headquartered at University of Southern California (USC), along with their regional and national collaborators, benefit from use of the OSG. It also extends the impact of their research outcomes and the projects themselves, as the system offers various ways to share research outputs and knowledge with external collaborators. The planned support for regional universities and integration with OSG increases opportunities to serve a broader community. A broad research community is supported by this system by providing access to public and private cloud services as well as local high performance computing (HPC) and data resources. The design of the hybrid cloud system facilitates the creation of customizable, virtualized platforms and reproducible, container-based application services that enable multi-dimensional computing and data solutions. Researchers are able to pick and choose from a standard service catalogue to build pre-defined virtual machines and containerized applications, or, if necessary, create their own specialized environments. Along with built-in security, reproducible service modules, and the capability of creating and sharing customized environments, the hybrid cloud system bridges multi-disciplinary research domains and enhances the usability of advanced cyberinfrastructure for improved research productivity. 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.