iRODS set to make a splash at Bio-IT World conference

Published: April 4, 2016

Consortium members, users to demo open source software for data management

CHAPEL HILL, NC, April 4, 2016 – Attendees and media at this week’s Bio-IT World Conference and Expo in Boston will have plenty of opportunities to learn about iRODS, the integrated Rule Oriented Data System, and the iRODS Consortium, the membership organization that supports the development of iRODS as free open source software for data discovery, workflow automation, secure collaboration, and data virtualization.

Five iRODS Consortium members will have booths at Bio-IT World, including the newest consortium member HGST, a Western Digital Corporation brand (booth 560). Other members with a presence at the conference and expo are Cleversafe, Inc. (554), DataDirect Networks (DDN, 357), EMC (249), and IBM (460). Panasas, another leading storage provider with a presence at the conference (booth 455), is integrating iRODS into its latest technologies.

Members of the iRODS development team will be on hand in the iRODS Consortium booth (148) to talk about the latest improvements to the iRODS platform, plans for the release of iRODS 4.2, and the upcoming iRODS User Group Meeting.

In addition, iRODS and iRODS-enabled technologies are finalists for Bio-IT World Best of Show People’s Choice Awards, which will be announced Wednesday evening:

  • EMC MetaLnx v1.0: EMC MetaLnx is an open-source web application developed to capture, manage and apply metadata to research data collections. It works alongside iRODS and provides an intuitive graphical interface that supports iRODS administrative actions, collection management, and metadata management without requiring users to memorize individual iCommands.
  • iRODS 4.1 with Cloud Browser 1.1: First released in May 2015 and updated several times since then with new plugins and features, iRODS 4.1 represents a significant step forward for iRODS technology by incorporating a new set of fundamental features and bug fixes. Cloud Browser is an easy-to-use interface for iRODS developed in collaboration with the DataNet Federation Consortium, a National Science Foundation project that develops data management infrastructure for research communities.

“People attending Bio-IT World will have plenty of opportunities to learn how iRODS is being integrated into storage platforms and how it can be used to manage and share biomedical data while keeping it safe,” said iRODS Consortium Director Dan Bedard. “We invite all attendees to visit us and the other iRODS Consortium members at Bio-IT World this week.”

The Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo is a premier event showcasing IT and informatics applications and enabling technologies that drive biomedical research, drug discovery and development, and clinical and healthcare initiatives. The conference attracts more than 3,000 life sciences, pharmaceutical, clinical, healthcare, and IT professionals from more than 30 countries. To learn more, visit http://www.bio-itworldexpo.com/

Next up for iRODS: Annual User Group Meeting

Those who want in-depth information about iRODS and the chance to interact with both users and developers are invited to register for the annual iRODS User Group Meeting (UGM), which takes place June 8 and 9 in Chapel Hill, NC. One-day workshops aimed at beginner and advanced iRODS users will be held on June 7. Registration for both the workshops and the UGM runs through May 27, and early bird discounts are available through April 22. To register, visit http://irods.org/ugm2016/.

About the iRODS Consortium
The iRODS Consortium is a membership organization that supports the development of the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS), free open source software for data discovery, workflow automation, secure collaboration, and data virtualization. The iRODS Consortium provides a production-ready iRODS distribution and iRODS training, professional integration services, and support. The world’s top researchers in life sciences, geosciences, and information management use iRODS to control their data. Learn more at irods.org.

The iRODS Consortium is administered by founding member RENCI, a research institute for applications of cyberinfrastructure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Learn more at renci.org.