CCRI: Grand: Developing a Testbed for the Research Community Exploring Next-Generation Cloud Platforms

云计算在支持我们日常生活中使用的大多数软件方面发挥着重要作用。该项目将构建并支持一个测试平台，用于研究和实验新的云平台——为应用程序提供云服务的底层软件。这样的测试平台对于研究新的云技术至关重要——研究需要实验，而实验可能会改变云本身的操作。新的测试平台将结合经过验证的软件技术和实际生产云，增强了可编程硬件——现场可编程门阵列（FPGA）——目前研究人员在其他设施中没有这种能力。测试平台和生产云的结合允许a)与孤立的测试平台相比更大规模，b)基于实际用户行为和应用的可重复实验，以及c)将成功的研究成果转化为实践的模型。可编程硬件将成为研究硬件加速技术的独特资源，该项目的社区拓展部分旨在识别、吸引和留住感兴趣的研究人员，并教育他们如何使用该设施。测试平台提供了一个独特的可持续性模型，通过允许额外的计算资源动态地从机构用途移动到测试平台，并再次移动回来，提供了一个超越初始测试平台的增长路径。该测试平台将加速云技术的创新；影响当今几乎所有计算的技术。通过提供目前只有少数大型商业云提供商的研究人员才能使用的功能，它将允许不同的社区利用这些技术，使云计算研究“民主化”，并允许研究和开源社区之间增加协作。该项目的社区外展活动针对的是研究复杂分布式系统和云平台的研究人员，他们跨越了不同的背景、机构和地区。将开发软件工具，以便这些研究人员轻松有效地访问；教程、研讨会和网络研讨会将提供使用这些工具和测试平台本身的培训。该项目将支持培养该领域的下一代研究人员，与附属生产云的工业合作伙伴的现有关系将加速技术从学术研究向实际应用的转移。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Cloud computing plays an important role in supporting most software we use in our daily lives. This project will construct and support a testbed for research and experimentation into new cloud platforms - the underlying software which provides cloud services to applications. Testbeds such as this are critical for enabling research into new cloud technologies - research that requires experiments which potentially change the operation of the cloud itself. The new testbed will combine proven software technologies with a real production cloud enhanced with programmable hardware - Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) - capabilities not present in other facilities available to researchers today. The combination of a testbed and production cloud allows a) larger scale compared to isolated testbeds, b) reproducible experimentation based on realistic user behavior and applications, as well as c) a model for transitioning successful research results to practice. The programmable hardware will be a unique resource enabling investigation into hardware acceleration techniques, and the community outreach portion of the project aims to identify, attract, and retain interested researchers, and to educate them in the use of the facility. The testbed offers a unique sustainability model, by allowing additional compute resources to be dynamically moved from institutional uses into the testbed and back again, providing a path to growth beyond the initial testbed.This testbed will accelerate innovation in cloud technologies; technologies affecting almost all of computing today. In providing capabilities that today are only available to researchers within a few large commercial cloud providers, it will allow diverse communities to exploit these technologies, "democratizing" cloud computing research, and allowing increased collaboration between the research and open source communities. The community outreach activities of the project are targeted to researchers who explore complex distributed systems and cloud platforms, spanning a diverse range of backgrounds, institutions, and regions. Software tools will be developed to provide easy and efficient access by these researchers; tutorials, workshops, and webinars will offer training in the use of these tools and the testbed itself. The project will support educating the next generation of researchers in this field, and existing relationships with industrial partners of the affiliated production cloud will accelerate technology transfer from academic research to practical use.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.