Collaborative Research: Scalable Data Management Using Metadata and Provenance

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This project is developing new techniques for identifying and managing files, replacing tree-structured file names with content- and metadata- based search access. By leveraging existing work in search and recognizing the explosion in the volume of data stored, this project enables users to find and access their data in natural and intuitive ways, based on the files' contents, tags the user has assigned, system metadata, and provenance (information about the file's origins). This research targets high-end computing (HEC) users, who manage billions of files generated by measurement devices, experimentation, or scientific workflows. The techniques and system developed are also applicable to general-purpose computing.Realizing this goal requires advances in several areas. First, the project is designing and developing fast, scalable mechanisms to gather, maintain and index the large volume of metadata and provenance that HEC applications and users generate. This project is also exploring search algorithms that operate on graph structures, enabling users to find files "near" their current workspace. To enable users to access this functionality, the project is developing a new "language" that facilitates the kind of searches that users need.