ColdFront is an open-source resource and allocation management system for research computing centers, providing a unified portal to manage access to cyberinfrastructure resources such as clusters, cloud environments, and storage.
It streamlines the full allocation lifecycle – from researcher requests and system provisioning to director-level reporting – while capturing project data to measure scientific impact and improve operational efficiency.
Its extensible framework automates center-specific access policies and integrates with key ecosystem tools like FreeIPA, OpenID Connect, OpenStack, Slurm, OnDemand, and XDMoD.
Originally developed at the University at Buffalo, ColdFront is now a community-driven project with active contributions, shared plugins, and worldwide adoption across dozens of HPC centers of varying sizes and complexity.
A major new release is in development, incorporating lessons from early adopters and reimagining the core design for greater flexibility. It will enable full customization of workflows and integrations without requiring programming, making the platform more accessible to a wider range of HPC teams.
Community feedback is shaping the redesign to ensure it meets the needs of the research computing community.
This 30-minute presentation includes a 20-minute recorded demo of the allocation lifecycle and key features, followed by a 10-minute Q&A, highlighting how ColdFront helps modernize allocation processes.
