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Users and communities
This track focuses on the research communities in terms of how they are communicating and organising themselves and their own services, what their needs are for services from e-Infrastructure providers, the results they have obtained from e-Infrastructures, and their requirements beyond the current e-Infrastructure offerings. Submissions that address the sustainability of different models for the structure of user communities whether large, small, diverse or specialised, are particularly welcome.
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Software services for users and communities
Users increasingly expect software applications to be delivered as online services. This service platform approach is equally applicable in the world of research computing. We welcome submissions on current solutions and ongoing developments of online services and on how these online services are being delivered and used, as well as visions for future delivery of user-facing services. Such services may be provided centrally to meet common research needs, they may be delivered in a domain-specific environments for a specific research community, or they may be provided for a targeted smaller set of users. Submissions that address the sustainability of software services are particularly welcome.
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Middleware services
The term middleware services describes the deployed technologies that connect the distributed resources of an infrastructure. We welcome submissions that relate to the various platform solutions in use across Europe and beyond. These include ARC, dCache, gLite and UNICORE - being developed and integrated by the EMI project - as well as Globus, SAGA and others. Relevant topics include: authentication, authorization, information discovery, data and job management as well as implementation-of and contribution to community standards. Submissions on existing deployments of technology are welcome as are future looking plans addressing sustainability and other relevant challenges.
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Operational services and infrastructure
Underlying the successful operation of the grid are a collection of distributed resources and connected operations teams. We therefore welcome submissions that relate to the operation of the software and service platforms. Examples of topics relevant in this area are:
- experience with large-scale virtualization for the provisioning of software and services
- impact of virtualization on the operations model and costs
- resource provisioning models and workflows
- operations sustainability and business models
- challenges of infrastructure operation when supporting multiple software platforms and/or combined HTC and HPC services
- recent advancements of accounting services
- requirements for the enhancement of user-facing operational services -
Coordination and Communication
The successful and sustainable evolution of Distributed Computing Infrastructures is dependent upon good coordination and communication. We therefore welcome submissions relating to governance, policy and planning, marketing, dissemination and outreach activities.Examples of topics relevant in this area are sustainability and business models for infrastructure services, marketing strategies for reaching key stakeholders, development of governance models for e-Infrastructures and alignment with EU and national strategic policies.
The fully detailed scientific programme will be published later. It will be arranged in the following five tracks.
