Users to benefit from improved data movement capabilities

SEATTLE, Nov. 15 — The United Kingdom's National Grid Service (NGS) has adopted Globus Online as the preferred data movement method for its users.

All computing resources available to the NGS community have been added as transfer endpoints in the Globus Online system, a hosted service for high performance data movement, and NGS has been enabled as an identity provider for the service. Using their NGS credentials, users can quickly and easily log in to Globus Online and move files among NGS servers, or between an NGS server and the user's local server or laptop.

"We aim through the availability of this service to ensure that our users can quickly and easily access the data they need, regardless of the size or location of the data volume," said David Wallom, NGS Technical Director. "The process to move large volumes of raw information from resources that have generated it, back to the user who needs to manipulate and analyse the results, can be not only time-consuming but also difficult and frustrating for researchers. Enabling Globus Online for NGS data movement will provide a significant value-added service that I know will benefit our users."

Dr. Wallom further explained, "By using a web-based service, we are also ensuring users will have minimum interaction with what they might consider complex ICT tools and technologies — whilst giving them access to a sophisticated yet easy-to-use capability."

Globus Online is a secure, reliable file transfer service that makes it easy to move datasets of any size, whether between supercomputing facilities or from a facility to a local server or personal computer, without requiring custom end-to-end systems.

"We are very happy to provide this service for the hundreds of researchers who rely on NGS resources," said Ian Foster, director of the Computation Institute at University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, home to Globus Online. "With the increased capacity for sharing and collaboration that Globus Online provides, NGS users should be able to better focus on their research without the distraction of having to worry about how to move files from here to there."

A detailed tutorial about using Globus Online with NGS is available at http://www.ngs.ac.uk/globus-online-tutorial

UK NGS users can sign up for a free Globus Online account at https://www.globusonline.org/.

About UK NGS

The National Grid Service (NGS) aims to facilitate UK research by providing access to a broad range of computational and data based resources and services. Our goal is to help to deliver a production quality e-infrastructure to support academic research across all Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in the UK. By providing core services to enable collaborative access to computing and data resources, the NGS ensures that UK researchers can efficiently exploit computing facilities all across the globe. To make this possible we have developed partnerships with infrastructures in Europe, the USA, and elsewhere in the world. The EU Competitiveness Council has identified provision of e-Infrastructure as crucial to the future success of EU economies in a global market place. To meet this demand the NGS has established itself as the foremost provider of international e-infrastructure for the UK. The NGS is funded by JISC, and is led by the STFC e-Science Department. The e-Science department works in close conjunction with the University of Manchester, University of Leeds (White Rose Grid Consortium), and the University of Oxford.

About Globus Online

Globus Online is a fast, reliable file transfer service that simplifies the process of secure data movement. Recommended by HPC Centers and user communities of all kinds, Globus Online automates the mundane (but error-prone and time-consuming) activity of managing file transfers, whether between supercomputing facilities or from a facility to your laptop. Globus Online significantly reduces transfer time, with some users reporting movement of terabytes of data in just hours or even minutes. Globus Online is an initiative by the Computation Institute at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, and is supported by funding from the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. To get started or find out more, visit https://www.globusonline.org/.

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Source: Computation Institute