XSEDE12

Abstract: “Big Data” is a major force in the current scientific environment. In March 2012, President Barack Obama released the details of the administration’s big data strategy. Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced, “the initiative we are launching today promises to transform our ability to use Big Data for scientific discovery, environmental and biomedical research, education, and national security.” 

The datasets used by XSEDE researchers are getting larger as well. In the 2012 survey of researchers using RDAV’s Nautilus system at NICS, over two-thirds of respondents indicated that their data will grow in size over the next year. As more powerful resources, such as the upcoming Stampede system at TACC, become available to XSEDE researchers, simulation sizes will continue to grow. Furthermore, the XSEDE Campus Champions represent college and university researchers who are confronted by large datasets. 

There are many unsolved problems associated with analyzing, moving, storing, and understanding large scale data sets. At this BoF, researchers and XSEDE staff can discuss their challenges and successes with working with large datasets as well as the hardware, software, and support resources that XSEDE service providers can offer to researchers working with big data.