Towards implementing virtual data infrastructures - a case study with iRODS

Scientists demand easy-to-use, scalable and flexible infrastructures for sharing, managing and processing their data spread over multiple resources accessible via different technologies and interfaces. In our previous work, we developed the conceptual framework VISPA for addressing these requirements. This paper provides a case study assessing the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) for implementing the key concepts of VISPA. We found that iRODS is already well suited for handling metadata and sharing data. Although it does not directly support provenance information of data and the temporal provisioning of data, basic forms of these capabilities may be provided through its customization mechanisms, ie rules and micro-services.