Building an interoperable, distributed storage and authorization system

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of an interoperable, distributed astronomical data storage and access infrastructure based on IVOA standards, enabling seamless data sharing and user control across institutions.

Contribution

It introduces a new geographically distributed infrastructure that integrates access control and storage services using open source IVOA-compliant software.

Findings

Successful deployment of a twin infrastructure at INAF-OATs

Implementation of access control and storage services

Enhanced interoperability in astronomical data management

Abstract

A joint project between the Canadian Astronomy Data Center of the National Research Council Canada, and the italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste (INAF-OATs), partially funded by the EGI-Engage H2020 European Project, is devoted to deploy an integrated infrastructure, based on the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) standards, to access and exploit astronomical data. Currently CADC-CANFAR provides scientists with an access, storage and computation facility, based on software libraries implementing a set of standards developed by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). The deployment of a twin infrastructure, basically built on the same open source software libraries, has been started at INAF-OATs. This new infrastructure now provides users with an Access Control Service and a Storage Service. The final goal of the ongoing project is to build an integrated infrastructure geographycally distributed providing complete interoperability, both in users access control and data sharing. This paper describes the target infrastructure, the main user requirements covered, the technical choices and the implemented solutions.