INDIGO-DataCloud achieved significant advancements compared to the state of the art. In particular, the project developed a comprehensive open source Cloud architecture, which provides many new functionalities previously unavailable in open source and in several cases also in proprietary Cloud offerings. These functionalities abstract from underlying IaaS technologies through the consistent use of both de jure and de facto standards. This allows interoperability with hybrid (public/private) infrastructures, or with e-infrastructures of different type (Grid, Cloud, HPC). The project also supports multiple existing authentication technologies (such as OAuth or SAML OpenID-Connect), addresses the need for unified data access, and provides a flexible and scalable way to authorize or deny access to distributed Cloud resources. The INDIGO platform hides the complexity and differences of physical storage systems and works seamlessly in geographically distributed infrastructures, with an optimized access to data through a template-based orchestration system and ways to automate deployment, scalability and monitoring of complex services, be they long-running or workload-based services. The project then introduced support for new services at the infrastructure level, for example extending Container support for popular open source Cloud frameworks, providing advanced resource scheduling mechanisms, and introducing QoS and data lifecycle support in storage systems. At the user interface level, the project is developing a completely programmable web framework, capable of interfacing with existing applications, mobile developments, complex workflows, big data analytics, and above all capable of supporting all the advance data and compute capabilities of the INDIGO platform.
These advancements are fully described in the INDIGO Service Catalogue and in scientific applications making use of INDIGO components, both described at the project website. The key impact of the project is toward easy and efficient usage of both public and private compute & data resources, in the development of cost-efficient, state-of-the-art scientific services and applications that are interoperable across diverse infrastructures, and ultimately toward producing results in many scientific domains in a faster, more effective way. INDIGO-developed solutions have for instance enabled new advances in understanding how the basic blocks of matter (quarks) interact, using supercomputers, how new molecules involved in life work, using GPUs, or how complex new repositories to preserve and consult digital heritage can be easily built.
