The Platform for Interactive Data Analysis in the Cloud
Description
SWAN is a turn-key platform to produce rich notebooks using a simple web interface. Users only have to pick their preferred browser and can immediately start to build their notebooks combining rich text, code, equations, plots, pictures, and videos. SWAN is based Jupyter Notebooks and uses CERNBox as home directory for its users. As a consequence, all files in CERNBox can be seamlessly used in a SWAN notebook while the notebook itself can be shared on the cloud.
Main Features
- Only a web browser needed: Users do not have to take care of any installation or configuration step. The full stack of functionalities provided by SWAN can be accessed via a common web browser.
- Storage based on CERNBox: All the files stored by users in CERNBox are immediately available in SWAN. Conversely, produced notebooks are stored in the cloud and inherit all the advanced sharing functionalities provided by CERNBox. As result, a SWAN user can produce a notebook, share it with her colleagues, and facilitate its dissemination, reuse, and further development.
- Include pictures, videos, and sound: SWAN notebooks allow the use of Markdown and HTML markup languages to produce formatted text enriched by hyperlinks, pictures, and videos.
- Support for multiple programming languages: SWAN comes out-of-the-box with kernels for Python, ROOT C++, and R. Additional kernels for other programming languages (e.g., Julia, Matlab, Wolfram, Perl, Ruby, JavaScript, Go) can be installed on the back-end and made directly available to users.
- Storage and computations are offloaded to the cloud: Users do not need to reserve storage or computational power on their machine. Both types of resources are demanded to the cloud and users can take advantage of them via a simple web interface.
- Availability of scientific libraries: SWAN automatically retrieves software packages from CVMFS, a software distribution system used by the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid. This constitutes an interface to potentially access widely-adopted scientific libraries being constantly maintained and updated.
Documents
The Sync and Share solution for Science
Description
CERNBox is cloud-based storage, synchronization and sharing for science. Users can easily access their files via the Web interface, have them synchronized with the CERNBox desktop client, and share single documents or entire folders with colleagues. CERNBox is also accessible from mobile devices via the CERNBox app with which it is possible to automatically upload pics and videos shot with the on-board camera to the cloud.
Main Features
- Synchronization across devices: Synchronize your files seamlessly with all your desktop and laptop PCs via the CERNBox synchronization client.
- Your files always available: Access your files independently on your location and the type of device you are using. As far as you are connected to the Internet, you can download and upload files using the CERNBox Web interface or the mobile application for your smartphone and tablet.
- Offline files availability: A local copy of your files is available on your desktop and laptop PCs even when you are not connected to the Internet. As soon as the connection is re-established, the latest version of your files will automatically be downloaded from the cloud and local changes will be uploaded. The mobile application for smartphones and tablets allow you to choose the files you want to have available offline.
- Selective synchronization: The CERNBox synchronization client allows the exclusion of specific folders from the synchronization process. This will result in having such folders kept stored in the cloud but not on your desktop or laptop PCs.
- Sharing functionalities: CERNBox allows the sharing of files or of entire folders either by link (i.e., providing an URL at which the shared resource is available) or by authenticated share (i.e., sharing the resource with another CERNBox user). Advanced sharing options are available, e.g., the ability to password-protect the shared resource or to make it editable by your peers.
- File versioning: CERNBox automatically creates a snapshot of a file every time a new version is uploaded. The 10 most recent snapshots are stored in CERNBox and users can restore an older version of a file in case of changes to be reverted.
- Trash bin: When a user deletes a file, this is not directly deleted but moved into a trash bin. Files into the trash bin are recoverable in order to avoid deletions by mistake.
The innovation action leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 732049 - Up2U 