Building Better Environments: A Baker’s Dozen of Methodologies for Configuring and Selecting Emulation Environments in EAASI

Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure (EAASI) is a digital preservation framework that enables users to configure and interact with emulated computing environments through a web browser. In the last decade, EAASI has been deployed in North America and Australia, demonstrating that emulation in general and Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure in particular is a viable platform for accessing a range of complex digital artefacts. Emulation is moving beyond an experimental strategy and into production. We are in the process of training researchers, digital archivists, conservators, and curators in the Australian research and GLAM sectors in how to image the parts of their collections still trapped on vintage media, and then to use EAASI for appraisal and access of these complex digital objects. However, a recurrent question our Community of Practice (CoP) asks is: once the disks have been imaged, how does one choose and configure the environment in which to render the works? This article proposes a methodology for building and choosing emulation environments in EAASI, with 13 specific methods elaborated. Using examples from our research projects, we aim to systematize and streamline the process of determining the most suitable emulation environment in which to render a complex digital artefact.