Globus

While some properties of SaaS have long been leveraged in science, particularly in science gateways, there is yet to be widespread adoption of SaaS models. For example, few scientific SaaS providers are publicly available, few leverage elastic cloud platforms, and none--with the exception of Globus--implement subscription-based models to recoup operations costs. Globus has employed the SaaS model for 7 years and is fast approaching subscription levels that will support long-term sustainability. In this paper we discuss the SaaS paradigm and explore its suitability to scientific domains. We then describe how production Globus SaaS services are implemented, deployed, and operated.