Towards SDI-bases Infrastructure for supporting science in Russia

Modern science presents a number of challenges to the cyber-infrastructure supporting it: heterogeneity of the required computational resources, problems associated with storing, preserving and moving large quantities of information, a collaborative nature of scientific activities requiring shared access to resources, continuously growing requirements for computational power and network bandwidth, and, last, but not least, ease of use. In this position paper we explore a new approach to creating and growing such infrastructure based on the principles of federation, enabled by deep programmability of individual infrastructure elements: Software-Defined Infrastructure (SDI). We describe the evolution of the science infrastructure, open research problems and the concrete steps we are taking towards its realization by building a unique, widely distributed science facility in Russia based on SDI and GENI technologies.