Open infrastructure — shared systems and resources supporting the creation, sharing, and preservation of research output and knowledge — is becoming increasingly crucial in the rapidly evolving world of research and scholarship. However, navigating this complex and dynamic landscape can be challenging for institutions and organizations:
- Which solutions are open-source, community-governed, distribute open-access content, and/or are free to use by anyone?
- What does a solution integrate with?
- Are there hosting / vended options available?
Infra Finder is a collection of validated open solutions that is designed to support informed decision-making.
Infra Finder: an evaluation tool to suit your needs
- Verified information on over 90 open infrastructures: one tool covering 30 solution categories, from repository software to digital preservation systems, authoring tools to data management planning tools and services (read more about our verification process and the new solution categories below).
- Targeted filtering: refine options based on specific criteria such as solution category, open attributes, technical attributes, community engagement mechanisms, business models, and hosting options. Quickly and easily identify solutions that align with your priorities and requirements.
- Comparison tool: evaluate up to four solutions side-by-side and share results with key stakeholders at your organization for discussion and strategic planning.
Up-to-date, verified information on 90+ open infrastructures
Infra Finder ensures that users can make well-informed decisions based on reliable, up-to-date details about open infrastructure solutions’ openness, community governance, interoperability, hosting options, etc.
- Our team works closely with infrastructure service providers in the data collection process: information is provided and reviewed by the service provider, and, where possible, validated against public data by our team members.
- Once approved for Infra Finder, open infrastructures can update data at-will using a new self-service portal, ensuring information stays current.
Introducing new open infrastructure categories to Infra Finder
Our newest release shows 37 new infrastructure services in Infra Finder and nine new solution categories. These include:
- Data and computational infrastructure
- Computing framework: A collection of reusable software components that make it more efficient to develop new applications or workflows, e.g.: Galaxy
- Computing library: A collection of pre-written code that can be used to perform specific tasks within an existing software, e.g. NumPy
- Data management planning tool or service: A tool or service that helps individuals to write, share and export a data management plan, e.g.: Arches Heritage Data Management Platform, iRODS, Renku
- Research software community: A platform that supports open software peer review, training, collection-building, or other functions that support adoption, evaluation, and maintenance of open software, e.g.: pyOpenSci, rOpenSci
- Digital preservation and archival infrastructure
- Digital preservation service: A service that provides the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary. e.g.: Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust), CLOCKSS, PKP Preservation Network
- Digital preservation system: A software or platform that provides the series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary. e.g.: Archivematica, DuraCloud
- Digital preservation tool: A tool that facilitates any of the managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary. e.g.: DART (Digital Archivist's Resource Tool)
- Web archiving system: A software or platform that gathers, stores, preserves, and provides access to data that has been recorded on the internet. e.g.: Browsertrix, Thoth Open Metadata
We've also added new open infrastructures to our existing categories for content and data infrastructure, including, in a new solution category:
- Open access or subscription management tool: A tool that helps users monitor and report on the open access status of publications. e.g.: OA.Report
These and other new solutions add to the original 57 infrastructure services, which included repository services and software; publishing systems; digital library, collection, or exhibit platforms; persistent identifier services; and more. We continue to extend Infra Finder’s coverage, ensuring that institutional and organizational stakeholders can find open infrastructure solutions that meet their diverse and changing needs.
Share your use cases and feedback today
Whether you are looking to make informed infrastructure choices or demonstrate a commitment towards open science and transparency, we want Infra Finder to work for you. Please take a moment to fill in our in-app survey to help us better understand your needs for discovering open solutions.
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