  Computational Science on large high performance computing resources is
hampered by the complexity of these systems. Much of this complexity is due to
low-level details on these resources that are exposed to the application and
the end user. This includes (but is not limited to) mechanisms for remote
access, configuring and building applications from source code, and managing
simulations and their output files via batch queue systems. These challenges
multiply in a modern research environment, where a research collaboration spans
multiple groups, often in loosely defined international collaborations, where
there is a constant influx of new students into multi-year projects, and where
simulations are performed on several different resources. The Simulation
Factory addresses these challenges by significantly simplifying remote access,
building executables, and managing simulations. By abstracting out the
low-level differences between different resources, it offers a uniform
interface to these resources. At the same time, it can enforce certain
standards for performing simulations that encapsulate best practices from
experienced users. Furthermore, SimFactory's automation avoids many possible
user errors that can in the worst case render month-long simulations worthless.
