Software Containers in Australian Research Sector - ARCOS Community Building and Collaboration on SciDir - a Scientific Software Distribution Project - Part 1

Sep 4, 2026

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The presentation outlines ARCOS as a national research community focused on building Kubernetes-based services and promoting container use for reproducible, portable, and low-infrastructure-complexity research platforms. It traces ARCOS origins from a 2020 national Kubernetes workshop, describes community goals and activity highlights, and showcases initiatives such as a Harbor-based container registry with advanced security and caching features. It also details skills upgrade and certification voucher outcomes and explores future directions, including managed Kubernetes service design, hacky sessions, and community-driven collaboration on SciDir.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Part I

ARCOS Community overview

Activities Highlights

Shaping the future

Part II

Collaboration on SciDir: A Scientific Software Distribution Project

ARCOS

Software Containers in Australian Research Sector: ARCOS Community Building and Collaboration on SciDir – a Scientific Software Distribution Project 17 Oct 2023 PRESENTED BY Dr Aleem Uddin About the ARDC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY We acknowledge and celebrate the First Australianson whose traditional lands we meet, and we pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging. About the ARDC AGENDA ● Part I ○ ARCOS Community overview ■ Activities Highlights ○ Shaping the future ● Part II ○ Collaboration on SciDir: A Scientific Software Distribution Project ARCOS ARCOS Community Overview Launched at the national Kubernetes workshop at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre on 11 March 2020. Addressing opportunities - reproducibility, portability, distribution, lower infra complexity and realise research platforms Purpose : ARCOS is a community, driven by various national institutions with the aim of establishing a national Kubernetes service and promoting use of containers in research. The infographic (Goals and activities) based on community consultation at eRA conference in 2020. ARCOS ARCOS Activities Highlights Example Case Studies Kubernetes @ TERN -Gerhard Weis Kubernetes and Microservice Deployment - Biosecurity Commons - Rob Cosgrove AURIN's Internal Development Platform - Umar Altaf ARCOS Container Registry Based on Harbor project Hosting containers from 10+ projects Offering advanced featuressecurity, caching .. Membership growth graph | Skills upgrade-EOI’ed participants offered Linux Foundation vouchers to get K8s training and certification | | --- | | 104 Certification vouchers-22 Organisations | | 104 Registered and started the training course | | 4 Certified Kubernetes Administrators (CKA) | | 1 Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) | | 44 Approached via 1-1 survey | | 19 Provided feedback | Shaping the Future Managed Kubernetes Service Overcoming technical complexities and depth of tech knowledge ! How might we design a managed kubernetes service which eases research projects to adopt kubernetes? What does it mean by having Managed Kubernetes Service? Is it team of specialists helping projects or is it an offering? How can the ARCOS community be leveraged to make such a service successful? What should infra providers such as ARDC or Pawsey do in order to make kubernetes adoption easy? How can it be sustainably supported? Skills Initiative As an community effort, we have been offering Training and Certification vouchers to interested ARCOS members. As skills upgrade plays major role in adoption of containers and Kubernetes in research sector, How can we improve on the skills initiative? How can this help projects on the journey of Kubernetes adoption? Which certifications are beneficial CKA, CKAD or the CKS? And do you recommend any other certifications? Does certification provide some sense of confidence to RSEs as in professional development and ability to handle the project implementation? How could ARCOS promote skills around containers in the research sector? Hacky Sessions Technical challenges are often prompted by ARCOS members ! A suggestion was to organise Hacky Sessions . What is the format of Hacky session? How can we foster collaboration through hacky sessions? How can the community derive benefits by running hacky sessions? SESSION 2 Collaboration on SciDir

FAQs

What is ARCOS and what problem does it address in Australian research?

ARCOS is a community driven by national institutions to establish a national Kubernetes service and promote container use in research. It targets reproducibility, portability, distribution, and reduced infrastructure complexity for research platforms.

What is the ARCOS container registry and what capabilities does it offer?

The ARCOS container registry is based on the Harbor project and hosts containers from 10+ projects. It offers advanced features including security and caching.

How does ARCOS plan to shape the future of Kubernetes adoption and collaboration?

The plan includes exploring managed Kubernetes service models to ease adoption, improving skills initiatives via training and certification vouchers, and fostering collaboration through hacky sessions.

Sep 4, 2026

Upload by Sage