Atmosphere: The iPlant Collaborative Cloud Computing Service for the Plant Science Community

Biology is increasingly driven by large-scale datasets generated by high-throughput sequencing and other technologies, but resources to store and analyze such data are too often beyond the reach of individual researchers.  To meet this need the iPlant Collaborative has developed a cyberinfrastructure that provides access to high-performance computing, data-storage, and complex analytical tools, in an environment that promotes collaboration and the tackling of important questions in plant biology.  Here we describe Atmosphere, one component of iPlant’s cyberinfrastructure.. Atmosphere is a cloud computing service that gives researchers access to sophisticated analysis algorithms in an on-demand environment that accommodates computationally and data-intensive bioinformatics tasks. Preconfigured suites of tools and programming languages are presented as virtual machine images that are launched intuitively from icons in a self-service portal. The rich web client facilitates easy management and administration of up to four virtual machines running concurrently. In addition, Atmosphere provides data management and high-capacity storage via iRODs, which is integrated with the iPlant Discovery Environment (DE). Several images are currently available to registered users including those for statistical genetics and ecology. This presentation will demonstrate application of Atmosphere via several use-cases.