The DEEDS platform: Support for integrated data and computing across the research lifecycle

The NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure has recognized the emerging and evolving need for platforms that fully integrate data and computing workflows, and is calling for research to deliver systems that provide a full spectrum of data services and also offer a coherent coupling with computing software. The Digital Environment to Enable Data-driven Science (DEEDS) project has created a cross-domain, self-serve platform for data and computing that supports the entire end-to-end research investigation process. DEEDS offers interactive interfaces to 1) collect, manage, and explore data, 2) define and launch tools, 3) track computational workflows, 4) access toolkits for ad-hoc analytics, and 5) publish and share the investigations with broader research community. All interfaces are available from a single dashboard so that the workflow between data and tools is smooth and intuitive. This paper highlights the DEEDS platform capabilities for providing integrated data and computing services throughout the entire research investigation lifecycle and presents some examples from use cases that contributed to the platform development.