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software library dependencies, compilers, schedulers, and HPC middleware
in a virtual machine environment. Compatibility with low-level deployment
will allow for services to be built from the virtual machine level, with soft-
ware configured and deployed on top of standard virtual machine templates.
11.3.1.2 Automation of HPC Application Service and Web Form Generation
To turn deployed applications and virtual machines into services, they
need to be exposed through a graphical interface. The development of inter-
faces allows for the abstraction of both the application deployment and the
command line execution style of HPC cloud applications. To simplify this
process, a mechanism is required to automatically transform any HPC appli-
cation, IaaS cloud execution ready, into an easy-to-use service to be executed
in SaaS clouds (Brock and Goscinski 2009).
In the framework, each application is described by a set of attributes and
their associated values. The three major attributes of an exposed application
service are (1) the location of the virtual machine image where a targeted
HPC application has been properly installed and configured, (2) input and
output parameters for the HPC application, and (3) service invocation infor-
mation (e.g., an SaaS cloud service, which was selected by the user and infor-
mation on how to invoke it). Using the application attributes described, an
interface can be derived. Application parameters can be used to form the
controls to specify input and collect results. Through these controls, users
must be able to upload data and invoke services. Uploading and download-
ing data make use of the virtual machine location, while invoke services
require execution scripts, taken from the service invocation information.
11.3.1.3 Storage of Application Deployment Information
Combining the automation of application deployment and automation of
interface generation allows for the construction of HPC application services.
To enable sharing of HPC application services between researchers, this
framework requires the construction of an HPC application services registry.
Each HPC application service is proposed to be published and stored in such
a manner that their discovery and selection are easy. This implies that the
invocation information and at least two attributes of an application service,
its host location (SaaS cloud) and its web form, must be published.
To enable publication of resources and applications, development of a
dynamic broker is proposed (Goscinski and Brock 2010; Brock and Goscinski
2012); this will allow other end users to learn of the newly deployed services.
Deployed and exposed HPC applications as SaaS cloud services should be
easily discoverable and selectable by users. The proposed use of a registry
will allow users to discover and select the required services. By storing appli-
cation information, it is possible to build a repository of common analysis
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