Globus Connect Server Accepted for XSEDE Campus Bridging
November 18, 2013 | Vas Vasiliadis
XSEDE just announced that Globus Connect Server (formerly called Globus Connect Multiuser) is now accepted for use in Campus Bridging. Campus Bridging efforts in XSEDE aim to lower the barriers for researchers that wish to utilize XSEDE resources and to define best practices for campus IT staff connecting to national cyberinfrastructure.
Globus Connect Server provides a simple way for campuses to deliver secure, reliable data transfer and sharing to their users, with minimal IT requirements. Globus Connect Server provides multiple options for connecting to campus identity and cluster authentication system out of the box. It uses native packaging for various Linux distributions to greatly simplify deployment. Globus Connect Server automates the steps needed for setting up a Globus endpoint, and allows administrators to rapidly make any local storage system available to their users for transfer and sharing.
XSEDE has rigorous processes in place for accepting any software or service for production use within XSEDE. The process covers various aspects of software engineering including design reviews, documentation, and testing of the service by stakeholders. With the XSEDE Software Development and Integration team, the Operations Team and the security experts from these team participating in these reviews, the process provided us with important and useful feedback. For example, we had specific input on improvements to the documentation that we made prior to acceptance.
The Globus transfer service was accepted as the first XSEDE production service for data movement last year, and we're really excited to have successfully completed XSEDE's review of Globus Connect Server. If your campus is looking to bridge to national infrastructure, or you simply want to make it easy for users to move, sync, or share large data from your HPC systems, Globus Connect Server will provide an easy way to do that. You can get started by visiting globus.org/globus-connect-server.