Installation service: Supporting deployment of scientific software as a service

Abstract

Many computing intensive applications, such as scientific applications, are deployed in cloud environments, which do not require large upfront investments and can be set up and customized to meet users' needs. The configuration management of computing intensive applications is far from trivial as they might require a diversity of software packages, operating systems, and configuration schemata. Often, different versions of a same package are required, generating installation conflicts. This work proposes a software tool to automate software installation and configuration composed by a user-friendly interface, and a service-oriented architecture that encapsulates infrastructure automation tools. The tool (i) facilitates setup of cloud environments by abstracting specific details of infrastructure automation platforms, and (ii) supports cloud environment customization. Results of an evaluation from the perspective of end-user developers with little or no experience in setting cloud environments provided evidence that our software tool is, indeed, useful.