The recent DevCon 2025 event showcased not just cutting-edge development practices, but also demonstrated how modern DevOps principles and cloud infrastructure can seamlessly support large-scale technical workshops. Our team had the privilege of providing IT infrastructure and support for over 200 attendees, creating a robust learning environment through an exemplary public-private partnership.

CIROH's Research Cyberinfrastructure and DevOps team.
Left to right, top to bottom:
Manjila Singh, Arpita Patel, Nia Minor, Trupesh Patel, James Halgren; Benjamin Lee.

The Power of Collaboration​

DevCon 2025 represented an outstanding example of what's possible when public institutions and private enterprises work together:

• Corporate Sponsors: AWS and Google Cloud provided funding and infrastructure for the event.
• Infrastructure Partners: NSF JetStream and 2i2c JupyterHub delivered the computational backbone.
• Technical Implementation: The CIROH Research Cyberinfrastructure and DevOps Team managed IT access and software packaging.

Our Technical Approach​

Supporting 200+ workshop attendees required careful planning and execution. Our DevOps team and partners implemented:

Infrastructure as Code​

• Automated deployment of workshop environments
• Scalable JupyterHub instances configured for concurrent users
• Pre-packaged software environments ensuring consistency across all workstations

Cloud-Native Solutions​

• Leveraged AWS S3 bucket and Google Cloud BigQuery
• Implemented auto-scaling to handle peak workshop loads
• Ensured high availability across multiple availability zones

Seamless User Experience​

• Single sign-on authentication for 100+ participants using CIROH 2i2c JupyterHub's new WORKSHOP Hub!!
• Pre-configured JetStream2 environments with all necessary tools
• Real-time support slack channels for immediate issue resolution

Key Achievements​

• Zero Downtime: Maintained 100% uptime throughout the entire event
• Rapid Onboarding: All 200 attendees were able to access their environments within minutes
• Consistent Experience: Every participant had identical, fully-functional development environments
• Real-time Support: Our team resolved technical issues with average response time under 5 minutes

Lessons Learned​

This event perfectly demonstrated how DevOps principles—bridging development and operations—combined with cloud computing can transform organizational capabilities. Key takeaways include:

1. Automation is Essential: Pre-event automation allowed us to focus on attendee support rather than infrastructure management.
2. Public-Private Partnerships Work: Combining Google Cloud services, AWS services, 2i2c services and NSF's research infrastructure created a best-of-class research workshops solution.
3. Preparation Prevents Problems: Our extensive pre-event testing and redundancy planning paid dividends during the live event.

Looking Forward​

The success of DevCon 2025's IT infrastructure demonstrates that large-scale technical events no longer need to be limited by traditional IT constraints. By embracing DevOps practices and leveraging cloud partnerships, we can create learning environments that scale effortlessly while maintaining reliability and performance.

We're proud to have supported the DevCon 2025 community and look forward to applying these lessons to future events. The combination of public research infrastructure, private cloud resources, and dedicated DevOps expertise created an environment where 200+ developers could focus on learning and innovation without worrying about technical barriers.

Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to co-present a keynote at the CIROH Developers Conference (DevCon 2025), which attracted over 200 attendees. This presentation, which I presented alongside Dan Ames, focused on "CIROH HydroInformatics and Research Cyberinfrastructure." It was a fantastic experience to share insights into the powerful tools and technologies that CIROH engineers, students, researchers have been developing to advance hydrological research and operations.

Our keynote aimed to showcase the comprehensive ecosystem that CIROH offers. We highlighted four key pillars:

• Computing Resources: CIROH offers accress to public cloud infrastructure, on-premises HPC, and NSF ACCESS resources.
• Data Management: CIROH members handle and share vast datasets crucial for hydrological modeling. We've provided platforms to do so through HydroShare and CIROH AWS S3 buckets, as well as streamlining access and analysis of this data through tools like Google BigQuery API and Tethys Platform.
• Model Development: CIROH develops tools and frameworks for developing and refining hydrological models, including the NGIAB ecosystem.
• Knowledge Sharing: CIROH disseminates findings and best practices through the DocuHub and Portal platforms.

Value and Impact​

During the keynote, we emphasized the value that CIROH brings to new students and researchers. This includes access to:

• Computational resources (free for researchers) that would normally cost thousands of dollars.
• Datasets that would take months to compile.
• Tools that streamline research and increase its impact.
• Publications - https://portal.ciroh.org/publications

CIROH Ecosystem Tools

We also showcased several transformative tools within the CIROH ecosystem that are advancing the field of hydrology:

• NGIAB (NextGen In A Box) ecosystem (ngiab.ciroh.org): Revolutionizes water modeling by making the NextGen framework portable and accessible through containerized, open-source solutions.
• CIROH DocuHub (docs.ciroh.org): Your comprehensive knowledge center featuring technical documentation, monthly insights, and the latest developments in water science.
• CIROH Portal (portal.ciroh.org): A unified gateway connecting researchers to essential data, cutting-edge tools, and collaborative research opportunities.
• Google BigQuery NWM API (Documentation): Streamlines National Water Model data access with powerful cloud-based querying capabilities for efficient analysis.
• Tethys Platform: Transforms complex hydrological data and models into intuitive web applications, making advanced water science accessible to all stakeholders.
• AWS, Google Cloud, 2i2c JupyterHub and NSF Access: CIROH's AWS, Google Cloud accounts, CIROH 2i2c JupyuterHub and NSF Allocations for cloud computing in hydrology.
• Pantarhei and Wukong HPC: CIROH's state-of-the-art high-performance computing infrastructure, powering computationally intensive research and simulations.
• And many more innovative solutions driving water science forward!

Our overall message was that CIROH’s hydroinformatics and research cyberinfrastructure ecosystem is designed to support and amplify research efforts. We encouraged attendees to explore these resources and consider how they could be applied to their own work. Whether it's streamlining data workflows, tackling computationally intensive tasks, or sharing findings, CIROH provides the tools and infrastructure to push the boundaries of hydrological science.

We want to thank everyone who attended our keynote and engaged in the Mentimeter quiz. It’s an exciting time for CIROH, and we’re thrilled to be a part of this dynamic community!

Video voiced by Quinn Lee and prepared by Manjila Singh, Nia Minor, and Arpita Patel.