Toward an open, sustainable national advanced computing ecosystem

For over three decades, a largely organic process has brought into existence a somewhat disjointed and chaotic national research computing ecosystem supporting a collection of computational resources, services, and support. Consequently, much of the national advanced research computing environment can be characterized by pockets of more coherent resources and services in a larger, less coherent ecosystem. The rise in deployment of research computing resources on university campuses has added complexity to the situation. The National Science Foundation has made a foray into developing a more coherent environment via investments in XSEDE, the associated research computing resources, and critical common services and support for researchers. XSEDE can be viewed as a model for creating scalable, stable, and well-supported cyberinfrastructure. The NCSI provides an opportunity to catalyze a national discussion to carefully consider the state of the current ecosystem, the desired state moving forward, and how we will attain that desired state.