Apache Airavata: design and directions of a science gateway framework

摘要

This paper provides an overview and roadmap of the Apache Airavata software system for science gateways.rnGateways use Airavata to manage application and workflow executions on a range of backend resourcesrn(grids, computing clouds, and local clusters). Airavata’s design goal is to provide componentrnabstractions for major tasks required to provide gateway application management. Components are notrndirectly accessed but are instead exposed through component programming interfaces. This design allowsrngateway developers to take full advantage of Airavata’s capabilities and Airavata developers (includingrnthose interested in middleware research) to modify Airavata’s implementations and behavior. This is particularlyrnimportant as Airavata evolves to become a scalable, elastic ‘platform as a service’ for science gateways.rnWe illustrate the capabilities of Airavata through the discussion of usage vignettes. As an ApachernSoftware Foundation project, Airavata’s open community governance model is as important as its softwarernbase. We discuss how this works within Airavata and how it may be applicable to other distributed computingrninfrastructure and cyberinfrastructure efforts.