XRAS: Allocations software as a service in XSEDE

With a recently deployed software-as-a-service offering, the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is extending to other client organizations the ability to take advantage of the XSEDE Resource Allocation Service (XRAS), a comprehensive allocations environment for managing the submission, review, and awarding of resource allocations. This effort was launched to refine and revise a legacy system and more than 15 years' worth of incremental improvements; to better integrate and position the allocations service within the XSEDE infrastructure; and to help streamline the allocations processes across a broader set of cyberinfrastructure investments. Because the allocation processes for most high-performance computing providers are typically variations on a common high-level approach, XRAS can deliver allocations software-as-a-service through a set of common tools and interfaces enhanced by flexible mechanisms that allow clients to tailor the environment to meet the needs of their process. By offering such a service to the eScience community, we can leverage the unique expertise of the XSEDE team and expand opportunities for open science by sharing the interfaces needed to manage resource allocations for both large and small institutions.