Cloud computing for crystallography: current possibilities and prospects - Eugene Krissenel
With dramatic changes in both computing technologies and work patterns, which took place in last few years, there are very few reasons for not doing computational work in Cloud, whenever possible, now. Obstacles from the past, such as limited bandwidth, accessibility of resources and their inhomogeneity, difficulty of the initial development and setup, data security, etc., have been either removed completely or reduced to a level at which Cloud advantages, such as low maintenance burden, virtually infinite power, data persistence and safety, 24/7 availability, associated mobility, and others, clearly outweigh.
CCP4 has a long and successful history of providing online services for structure determination and, recently, pioneered the development of a dedicated Cloud solution for macromolecular crystallography (MX), the CCP4 Cloud. Being released on the doorstep of pandemic in 2019, CCP4 Cloud is now used by more than 1,500 researchers from both academic and commercial sectors.
The presentation will overview the current scope of CCP4 Cloud functionality, limits of possible now and in future, and set principal directions for further development and delivery to the research community. Integrating Cloud with data production facilities, structure repositories and web resources facilitating structure solution, would create a modern and comfortable eco-system for MX, and sets ambitious targets for years to come.