e-Science Central

e-Science Central is a Science-as-a-Service platform that combines three emerging technologies — Software as a Service (so you only need a web browser), Social Networking (to encourage you to interact and create your communities) and Cloud Computing (to provide you with storage and computational power).

SiDE researchers are able to use e-Science Central to not only securely store their data and share it with selected colleagues, but analyse it too. A powerful workflow engine is provided to allow analysis of data on cloud computing resources. The system can be used through a web browser or integrated into third party systems via an API. The Open Movement project within SiDE is utilising e-Science Central to store and analyse accelerometer data using algorithms in Java, R and Octave.

Cloud computing is an ideal fit for this type of study owing to the very large data sets (2.5TB raw data per study), and the sporadic periods of processing required. The use of cloud computing allows us to pay for storage incrementally and only run processing nodes when necessary. The patterns for data storage and analysis being developed in e-Science Central for Open Movement will be applicable to other activities in SiDE in the future. For instance, both the Ambient Kitchen and the Transport work make extensive use of sensors and will require similar storage and analysis techniques.