Fast access to remote objects 2.0 a renewed gateway to ENEAGRID distributed computing resources

Abstract This paper introduces a renewed gateway to ENEAGRID distributed computing resources named Fast Access to Remote Objects 2.0 (FARO 2.0). FARO 2.0 is a tool for application and desktop virtualization with a focus towards user experience (UX), providing trained as well as untrained users with a collection of centralized services that can be seamlessly used on their client through a remote desktop protocol. FARO 2.0 is a JavaFX application whose graphical user interface (GUI) and whose main logics have been implemented through the well-known Web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, Javascript) for easier maintainability and customizability, taking full advantage of the WebView component. The FARO 2.0 framework has been deployed both as a general purpose GUI for remote user access to ENEAGRID resources and as a specialized application or workflow-oriented GUI. They are applied in a set of applicative domains, ranging from materials science to technologies for energy and industry, environmental modeling, and nuclear fusion. Some examples and results are also presented.