Web Toolkit for Scientific Research: State of the Art and the Prospect for Development

TL;DR

This paper reviews current web-based systems for remote access to high-performance computing resources, highlighting trends, principles, and specific implementations to improve scientific research infrastructure.

Contribution

It provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in web toolkits for scientific computing and discusses future development prospects.

Findings

Shift from global grid systems to web platforms for resource access

Current systems enable secure remote job submission and monitoring

Web-based tools are key for future scientific computing infrastructure

Abstract

The paper examines the current trends in designing of systems for convenient and secure remote job submission to various computer resources, including supercomputers, computer clusters, cloud resources, data storages and databases, and grid infrastructures by authorized users, as well as remote job monitoring and obtaining the results. Currently, high-perfomance computing and storage resources are capable of solving independently the majority of practical problems in the field of science and technology. Therefore, the focus in the development of a new generation of middleware shifts from the global grid systems to building convenient and efficient web platforms for remote access to individual computing resources. The paper examines the general principles of the construction and briefly describes some of the specific implementations of the web platforms.