A Web-Based Platform for Publication and Distributed Execution of Computing Applications

Researchers increasingly rely on using web-based systems for accessing and running scientific applications across distributed computing resources. However existing systems lack a number of important features, such as publication and sharing of scientific applications as online services, decoupling of applications from computing resources and providing remote programmatic access. This paper presents Everest, a Web-based platform for researchers supporting publication, execution and composition of applications running across distributed computing resources. Everest addresses the described challenges by relying on modern Web technologies and cloud computing models. It follows the Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud delivery model by providing all its functionality via remote Web and programming interfaces. Any application added to Everest is automatically published both as a user-facing Web form and a Web service. Another distinct feature of Everest is the ability to attach external computing resources by any user and flexibly use these resources for running applications. The paper provides an overview of the platform's architecture and its main components, describes recent developments, presents results of experimental evaluation of the platform and discusses remaining challenges.