Sustainability: Open SciServer: A Sustainable Data-Driven Science Platform

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Data-driven research is central to the acceleration of science and engineering needed to address major societal needs, advance national health, and secure global strategic competitiveness. Methods and ideas to leverage rapidly growing data resources also provide broad impacts for society including democratization of access to data resources and development of the diverse, skilled workforce required by the industries of the future. At its core, modern data-driven science requires versatile analysis platforms that provide collaborative science teams powerful, inexpensive, and scalable tools for analysis of large and varied data sets. The Open SciServer project migrates the existing SciServer platform to one that can be used, installed, managed, and extended by research projects from community colleges to research institutions. A central goal of the project is creation of a path to sustainability so data providers can depend on the SciServer platform for up-to-date, optimized use and re-use of science data into the future. The Open SciServer project is a transition to sustainability for the SciServer collaborative data-driven science platform. SciServer is a cross-domain platform developed with NSF funding providing server-side data analysis and research with complex scientific workflows in interactive and batch mode. SciServer has a well-developed code base; an established user community; and demonstrated impact on scientific discovery, research, and education in fields as diverse as astronomy; materials science and engineering; turbulence; oceanography; and precision medicine and genomics. Specific Open SciServer project tasks include: codebase migration to open source; creation of developer-level documentation allowing modification and development of new services; enhancing administrative functions with built-in monitoring and metrics; and creation of tiered cloud-deployment options. Together these developments allow easy adoption as a science platform to optimize use of large data resources from any domain or project. Open SciServer also expands and engages the user community to gather input and refine existing architecture to facilitate sustainable development. Providing a powerful, open science platform promotes open science through democratization of advanced computing and access to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible) research data. This award by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure is jointly supported by the Information and Intelligent Systems Division within the Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering and the Division of Astronomical Sciences within the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 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.