Towards Automated Workflow Deployment in the Cloud Using TOSCA

Scientific workflows play an increasingly important role in building scientific applications, while cloud computing provides on-demand access to large compute resources. Combining the two offers the potential to increase dramatically the ability to quickly extract new results from the vast amounts of scientific data now being collected. However, with the proliferation of cloud computing platforms and workflow management systems, it becomes more and more challenging to define workflows so they can reliably run in the cloud and be reused easily. This paper shows how TOSCA, a new standard for cloud service management, can be used to systematically specify the components and life cycle management of scientific workflows by mapping the basic elements of a real workflow onto entities specified by TOSCA. Ultimately, this will enable workflow definitions that are portable across clouds, resulting in the greater reusability and reproducibility of workflows.