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The role of software in the UK Research Computing Ecosystem

The role of software in the UK Research Computing Ecosystem. 8 July 2011 Neil Chue Hong, Director, SSI N.ChueHong@software.ac.uk. UK Research Computing Ecosystem. Communities …. People. Computing. Software. Data Centres. Network/Collaboration. Instruments. Observations.

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The role of software in the UK Research Computing Ecosystem

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  1. The role of software in the UK Research Computing Ecosystem 8 July 2011 Neil Chue Hong, Director, SSI N.ChueHong@software.ac.uk

  2. UK Research Computing Ecosystem Communities … People Computing Software Data Centres Network/Collaboration Instruments

  3. Observations • Software now has a longer lifetime of effectiveness than hardware • And people’s knowledge is even longer • The right software makes the hardware exploitable by more researchers • Allows computing to be treated as a commodity asset • Demanding users of computational infrastructure are coming from arts + humanities / social science • Software frameworks must support all types of app • A culture of reuse rather than reinvention is not widespread • Originality is good but must be balanced by consolidation • The best research is trans-national: our infrastructure must support this

  4. A More Manageable Ecosystem • Discourage duplicative software development in research grants by encouraging reuse and long-term development • Need to change perceptions so that software is seen as valuable (and not just invaluable when it disappears) • Some specialist support should be provided and funded separately • Maintenance vs. research vs. development • We cannot assume that the way people interact with the ecosystem will conform to expectations • Training early in career should be on exploiting, not conforming • Well supported open platforms are the key in the age of the research mashup • Create a larger proportion of enabled researchers and provide the ramps to go from desktop to high-end infrastructure

  5. Road ahead • Long term funding, but not necessarily longer term milestones • Projects and groups must have a roadmap to build against and we must retain competition and excellence without losing skills • Encourage software to be more collaborative and recognise the need to support its users for the long-term • Too much falling by the wayside for lack of decent ongoing support: opportunity for new orgs to enter community? • Specific funding for developing and maintaining infrastructure • Particularly innovative software development which aims for further along the infrastructure roadmap • Recognise the distinction between encouraging the “emergent” communities and translating successes into the “mainstream” of research: requirements are not the same

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