1. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 1/14 Study of User Priorities for e-Infrastructure for e-Research (SUPER) Steven Newhouse Jennifer Schopf Andrew Richards Malcolm Atkinson

2. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 2/14 We have a dream… A usable, useful, and accessible e-infrastructure for researchers across a wide variety of disciplines Existing and new e-infrastructure facilities and services integrated into a coherent whole To increase the use of the existing e-infrastructures by a >10 by 2010

3. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 3/14 Turning Dreams to Reality! Identify issues that are: –Short-term (6-18 months): Actions within existing funding streams –Longer-term (3-5 years): Actions that need new/renwed funding streams Inform roadmaps for collaborative research: –Organisations: OMII-UK, NGS, DCC, … –Funders: RC UK, JISC, JCSR, … Not the place to identify solutions

4. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 4/14 Methodology & Coverage Face to face interviews: –Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Reading & on-line survey Covered 45 people from over 30 projects –~30% EPSRC –~30% BBSRC, MRC and JISC –Remainder: DTI, EU, Wellcome, AHRC, ESRC, NERC & PPARC, University funded

5. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 5/14 Projects by Funders

6. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 6/14 Major Common Topics Distributed file management and policy Tools to support dynamic Virtual Organisations Long-term project support: –Tools, services, training and consultancy Provision of authentication, software licensing, and reliable consistent environments User Interaction with e-infrastructure services

7. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 7/14 File management and policy Growth of simulation based science on grid resources Files needed as input & output (not DBs) –From your desktop and remote resources Files need meta-data as to content & source –Ideally automatic annotation & provenance How long must/should they be stored for? Who can have access and when?

8. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 8/14 Dynamic Virtual Organisations Current VO models are relatively static and driven from the centre, e.g. VOMS Need to be more end-user centric –The resources and services I can access: Through collaboration, membership, position, … VO composition & relationships change –Tools and operating models need to reflect this –May need to record activity within a VO e.g. contracts, deliverables,

9. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 9/14 Projects need Support Teams: ‘people the most valuable asset’ –But managing distributed teams as one is very hard –Manage different cultures, organisations & incentives Services: ‘stand on shoulders’ –Software: Use what’s out there: NGS: Core very low-level infrastructures Community Resources: MIMAS, EDINA, myGrid, … –People: Need access to experts Training & Consultancy: ‘rapidly gain knowledge’ –Hard to get all the skills in one person  MUST TRAIN

10. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 10/14 User Oriented Operational Issues Authentication –Certificates adopted by service providers –Very difficult for many end-user communities Deployment of many wrappers around certificates Licensing –Growing use of third party commercial applications, e.g. Matlab –Use my license on remote machine Currently very hard (impossible) Consistent Environments –Without consistency very hard to deploy licensed applications on demand Reliability –If services not reliable, might as well not be there. Better if not!

11. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 11/14 User Interaction with e-infrastructure Services Interactions MUST match the user –Technical Expertise –Normal Environment Command line shells –Traditional ‘expert’ interface to systems Scripting Environment –From within basic shells: Bash, Tcsh, … –Application Environments: Perl, Matlab, Python, … Workflows Portals All underpinned through a common API

12. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 12/14 Minor Issues Sustainability –FEC is making collaboration harder –Need to ensure usage is accounted for File Replication End to End Security –Firewalls still the ‘blunt instrument’ of choice Scheduling –A vital requirement for only a few groups

13. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 13/14 Conclusions Software –Much has been prototyped… but not finished –There are still areas that need experimentation Policy –Need ‘better joined up’ ness through best practice –Data, VOs, Environments, … Community Support –Technical consultancy for all users of e ‑ infrastructure services from people –Self-help training materials and hands-on tutorials delivered by trainers for common tools

14. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 14/14 Acknowledgements Funding –E-Science Core Programme & JISC Day release –OMII-UK, NGS, JISC, Globus Alliance Contributors –Interviewees for their honesty & flexibility –Comments from the community Feedback: s.newhouse@omii.ac.uk

15. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 15/14 Technical Breakouts Virtual Organisation Infrastructures –Life Cycle –Entities that need to be managed & accounted for E-Infrastructure Support Service –Training –Consultancy E-Infrastructure Deployment –Consistent environments –User Interaction File & meta-data Management –Mechanisms –Policy –Replication

16. NeSC Workshop - February 2007 16/14 Breakout Considerations Who are the early adopter/active communities? –To gather detailed requirements How uniform are the requirements within the community? –Are there gaps? Revise emphasis? Targets over the next 12 months –Longer term?