Open OnDemand: Connecting Computing Power With Powerful Minds

First introduced in 2013, Open OnDemand [5] (openondemand.org) is an innovative, open-source, web-based portal that removes the complexities of research computing (RC) system environments from the end-client, and in so doing, reduces "time to science"for researchers by facilitating their access to RC resources. Through Open OnDemand, RC clients can upload and download files, create, edit, submit and monitor jobs, create and share apps, run graphical user interface-based (GUI) applications and connect to a terminal, all via a web browser, with no client software to install and configure. Open OnDemand greatly simplifies access to RC resources, freeing domain scientists from having to worry about the operating environment and instead focus on their research. It enables computer center staff to support a wide range of clients by simplifying the user interface and experience. The overall impact is that clients can use remote computing resources faster and more efficiently. In this paper, we describe advances to the Open OnDemand platform since it was publicly released to the research computing world in 2017 [4], the community that has developed around it and our plans to leverage these to build an ecosystem to ensure future sustainability of this popular platform.