Mr Kaushik Ramesh1, Dr Bernard Meade1, Mr Dinusha Withanage1, Mrs Lauren Meaney1
1University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia
Today’s researchers increasingly need to access computation beyond what a standard computer can provide. Cloud computing is the answer to this need but can often be too technical for many researchers, forcing them to either procure expensive workstations, limit their computation requirements, or wait a very long time for their results.
The University of Melbourne’s Researcher Desktop project dramatically reduces the entry barrier to cloud computing in research by introducing a managed cloud service. Researchers of any technical ability can easily create and manage their virtual machine without understanding how the virtual infrastructure works, performing any system administration, or waiting for approval and support from a central IT team. Researcher Desktop enables researchers to get the computation power they require in minutes rather than days or weeks.
Researcher Desktops also benefit service providers, making far more efficient and secure use of computing resources than unmanaged virtual machines. Furthermore, unlike most other VDI solutions, the user efficiently creates, uses and terminates instances themselves.
This apposite solution design evolved from extensive user research and deep analysis of Research Cloud pain points. Only six months in, The University of Melbourne is already seeing huge benefits, with membership constantly growing and increasingly populated with people completely new to cloud computing, without a commensurate uptick in support tickets. Now the Australian research community can benefit from this model with ARDC selecting the Researcher Desktop as the basis for their curated virtual desktop solution, launched in May 2022 and called the Nectar Virtual Desktop Service.
Biography:
Kaushik Ramesh, Application and Service Integration Consultant, is a member of the software development team at the University of Melbourne that is responsible for designing and developing research software platforms to improve access to research computing infrastructure for Researchers. He has 6+ years of industry experience as a software developer working in FinTech and Internet software services sectors. Kaushik is one of the critical developers in Researcher Desktop and related applications, enhancing research outcomes for researchers at the University of Melbourne and their collaborators. He collaborates with researchers to develop a vibrant user community for the cloud and its related services.