A comment on Renee DiResta's article on science as a service.
This article echoes several themes that I speak to often. In my conception, every researcher is an entrepreneur, and researchers, like entrepreneurs, should be able to run their (virtual) operations from coffee shops. Science as a service frees researchers to work when and where they want, while also saving them time and money.
For many researchers, tasks concerned with managing (collecting, storing, annotating, indexing, analyzing, sharing, archiving) data are among the most time-consuming. Thus, my colleagues and I established Globus Online (www.globusonline.org) to deliver research data management as a service. The data that Globus Online manages sits at sequencing centers, computer centers, in cloud storage services, and on laboratory computers; Globus Online services run on Amazon computers.
Our first Globus Online service focuses on file movement; several thousand people use it routinely to move large quantities of data (more than 10 petabytes to date) rapidly, reliably, and securely between hundreds of endpoints. During 2013, we'll be adding data sharing, cataloging, analysis, and other functions.
Globus Online is operated by the University of Chicago as a non-profit service for the research community. Please take a look and provide feedback if you can.
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