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Project Description - Phase I

Scaling computation is now well understood and operationalized via NSF programs (XSEDE). The same capacity is needed when storage at scale is needed for data-driven science – not just hardware, but also expertise, software, and resource management. Over four phases, this proposal will establish a distributed and resilient storage network that is appropriately governed between the four regional data hubs in the U.S. The OSN endeavors to provide a national storage substrate for active scientific datasets that leverages the existing network infrastructure for communicating research data to other institutions and computational facilities.

Project Need

An Open Storage Network (OSN) is needed to enable science collaborations across universities, research institutions and scientific instruments. It must be planned now, with a design that is scalable and flexible, and that permits the data-science software to emerge and become robust, so that unique data resources can be combined regularly and easily. Equally important is the need to build a community ready to support the expansion and health of such a resource. With the high-speed networking needs addressed by the CC-NIE awards, the next fundamental component is a storage substrate. The proposed OSN would serve as the storage substrate, meeting the data sharing and storage needs of researchers.

Aside from storage, the OSN appliances would provide caching that would both function as a campus gateway to the high-speed network stores and to commercial cloud providers. The vision for the OSN's evolution would immediately address NSF-funded data needs, integrate with the NSF's existing Big Data (BD) Regional Innovation Hubs, and serve specialized data, e.g. HIPAA-regulated data.