Increasing TeraGrid User Productivity through Integration of Information and Interactive Services

The TeraGrid user portal is a Web portal that aggregates and simplifies access to TeraGrid information and services for active TeraGrid users. The vision for the TeraGrid user portal is to become the resource that all TeraGrid users turn to for access, education, use and support of TeraGrid systems. The user portal is an operational activity of the TeraGrid project while also serving as a platform for software development and integration of TeraGrid services. The initial release of the TGUP in 2006 provided a single place for researchers to access documentation and user information, review the capabilities and current status of all resources, and learn how to get access to systems and support. Since the initial release, the development team has improved the initial capabilities and integrated many new features to make using the distributed resources of TeraGrid easier and further increase user productivity. The improvements and additions since the initial release cover three classes of TGUP features: informational services, interactive services, and user-centric services. This paper will describe some of the most important recent additions to TeraGrid User Portal capabilities, and will discuss planned future capabilities and their expected impact.