Explore/ADAPT Science Cloud

Explore Platform for Large Scale Data Analytics

The Explore Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a managed virtual machine (VM) environment that provides services specifically designed for large-scale data analytics. Also known as ADAPT (Advanced Data Analytics PlaTform), it incorporates storage, compute, container, and cloud computing capabilities.

The architecture features over 300 physical hypervisors that host one or more Virtual Machines each. These VMs have access to multiple shared, centralized data repositories. For user convenience, shared home and $NOBACKUP directories are mounted on all VMs. The Explore PaaS/ADAPT environment assumes an embarrassingly parallel workflow, meaning VMs work autonomously, requiring little or no communication with other VMs (MPI type jobs are better suited for Discover). The goal of the platform is to provide a ‘local’ type user experience using virtual resources.

Explore PaaS/ADAPT incorporates several recent innovations from the IT community, many of which have been researched within the NCCS. These technologies include virtualized high-speed ethernet networks, a high-performance file system and object storage environment, application modules, container runtimes and virtual systems—all deployed in a cyberinfrastructure specifically designed for data-intensive science applications.