Desktop as a Service Supporting Environmental 'omics

Within the Environmental 'omics community Bio-Linux is a widely used tool. This has the advantage of providing in a single deliverable package all necessary software and tools to support common analyses. With the growth in data volumes within the community and increasing constraints on user access and control over their own desktops an alternative delivery method of Bio-Linux and, in future, the Docker container environment is necessary. Within the EOS Cloud project we have constructed a Desktop as a Service system to centrally host virtual machines with these tools preconfigured and maintained. To enable efficient use of the resources we have enabled user controlled resource scaling so that users are able to utilise small scale VMs for task configuration and data manipulation and boost to a larger scale to run analysis applications all the while maintaining the user environment in a consistent manner. Alongside this within the project we have been developed tools to simplify the increasingly popular Docker software usage model. This includes ensure uniformity of behaviour between the host system and the running Docker container. Within the invitation only trial user community we identify two different exemplars groups and explain their usage and how the products and services developed within the project are useful for them. We conclude discussing the useful nature of Desktop as a Service, how it is of great benefit to the bioinformatics community but could also be of great use elsewhere, where the need for a stable user environment with applications already available that do not rely on local ICT support.