Web platforms for scientific research

This paper considers current trends in creating systems for convenient and secure remote submission (by authorized users) of jobs to computing resources of different types, including supercomputers, clusters, cloud resources, storages, databases, and grid infrastructures. Presently, large computing and storage resources are capable of solving, on their own, the majority of practical problems in the field of science and technology. Therefore, the focus in developing next-generation middleware shifts from global grid systems towards creating convenient and efficient means of access to large individual resources. A web platform for remote access to computing resources is a set of special web services and application-oriented web interfaces. Such web platforms, on a centralized basis, provide users with a number of services interrelated by a specific application area, principle of access, and interface. In this paper, general principles of creating such platforms are considered and some particular implementations of web platforms are briefly described.