e-Science Central: A Cloud Platform for Research and Teaching
Paul WatsonSchool of Computing ScienceDirector, Informatics Institute
Newcastle University, [email protected]
With thanks to:- The team: Hugo Hiden, Simon Woodman, David Leahy, Jacek Cala, Joanna Berry- Funders: RCUK Digital Economy, EPSRC, OneNE, Microsoft External Research, Newcastle Science City
Motivation• Background in multidisciplinary research
– 30 projects (£30M in research funding)• NE Regional e-Science Centre & SiDE Digital Economy Hub
– collaborative (universities and industry)
• Often working with researchers with little access to IT skills & resources
• Can Clouds help?
3
Clouds are built on Data Centers
• Economies of scale• Approximate costs for a small
size center (1000 servers) and a larger, 100K server center.
Each data center is 11.5 times
the size of a football field
Technology Cost in small-sized Data Center
Cost in Large Data Center
Ratio
Network $95 per Mbps/month
$13 per Mbps/month
7.1
Storage $2.20 per GB/month
$0.40 per GB/month
5.7
Administration ~140 servers/Administrator
>1000 Servers/Administrator
7.1
(acknowledgements to Dennis Gannon, Microsoft)
Typical Prices
• CPU $0.10 /hour• Storage $0.10 /GB month• External Data Transfer $0.10 /GB
The Promise of Clouds• Reduce IT capital expenditure
– “CapEx OpEx”– Sustainability
• Scalability….
Good Workload Patterns for Clouds(with acknowledgements to Dianne O’Brien)
Fast Growth
• application/data with growing popularity
Bursting
• Research– new data to be processed– new algorithm to run
• Teaching– term-based usage
Time
Com
pute
Time
Com
pute
The Problem with Clouds
Cloud Infrastructure:Storage & Compute
Ap
p 1
....
Ap
p n
Building scalable,reliable, secure systems on cloudinfrastructure is still hard
• high level IT skills• bespoke• on-going management costs• lock-in
Realising cloud advantages isbeyond most who could benefit
e-Science Central Approach
Cloud Infrastructure: Storage & Compute
Cloud Platform
App 1 .... App n
Cloud Infrastructure:Storage & Compute
Ap
p 1
....
Ap
p n
Key Requirements
Store
Analyse
AutomateShare
Data (experimental data, instruments, sensors...)
All through Web Browser
App ....
Workflow Enactment
App API
Social Networking
Security
Processing
e-Science Central
Storage
App
Analysis Services
CloudPlatform
CloudInfrastructure
Provenance/Audit
Metadata
Supporting Teaching
• Students just need Web Browser– anytime, anywhere, any device” learning
• Teachers can set up exercises– data, services, workflows
and remotely review students work….
Supporting Tech Transfer• supports industry collaboration• can restrict access to specific content until IP
deal agreed• e.g. SimMarTec
– predicts how weather patterns will affect a ship’s progress
Summary
• Clouds have the potential to transform research & teaching– platform for innovation in research, teaching & tech. transfer– not just cost reduction!
• But, access to cloud infrastructure doesn’t help the vast majority of potential users who lack deep IT skills
• High-level cloud platforms needed, e.g. e-Science Central..• handles storage and processing• + scalability, dependability, security & audit• insulates users from cloud vendor lock-in
• can deploy on intranet as well as public cloud
