CIPRES Subscription Model Evolves

Adapting for Sustainability: CIPRES Subscription Model Evolves

The CIPRES Gateway project has been serving the global scientific community for 15 years. For the first 12 years, we provided access to powerful US National Science Foundation (NSF) clusters at no cost to users, thanks to NSF funding. In 2020 alone, CIPRES distributed over 24 million compute hours to scientists worldwide, supporting over 1,800 publications in 108 countries, all free of charge.

In 2021, the NSF decided to discontinue funding for CIPRES, prompting us to implement a subscription model in January 2021. Users requiring more than 1,000 hours per year now pay an annual subscription fee to submit jobs. While users now bear the costs of CIPRES, the NSF still provides a block award of 6 million compute hours annually, which CIPRES distributes to our users.

Initially, we hoped that subscriptions from high-usage users would cover our operating costs, allowing free access for lower-usage users. Unfortunately, this has not been sufficient. To keep CIPRES operational, we now need to charge users at all levels.

New Policy Details

• Free Trial: Each registered account will receive a six-month free trial, providing up to 1,000 compute hours.
• Subscription Fee: After the trial, accounts must pay an annual fee of $30 for up to 1,000 compute hours.
• Higher Usage Tiers: Remain available and unchanged.

The trial period helps users evaluate CIPRES's value before committing to a subscription. It also supports free use for educational purposes, lasting through a full semester. The $30 annual fee is modest but essential for CIPRES's continued operation as a not-for-profit resource, covering salaries and equipment costs.

CIPRES Benefits

• Longevity and Stability: CIPRES has provided a stable, fully supported platform for 15 years, unlike many other phylogenetics resources.
• Efficiency: Access to 20+ parallel codes, optimized to run efficiently.
• Flexibility: Few limitations on data size and run duration within account allocation limits.
• Data Storage: Indefinite storage for active users.
• Dedicated Support: A focused support team dedicated to enhancing CIPRES.

Why Subscribe?

We understand it’s inconvenient to pay for resources that were previously free. However, CIPRES offers significant value:

• Cost-Effective: The $30 annual fee is a fraction of the time and effort you would spend installing and running similar software on your laptop.
• Access Anywhere: Use CIPRES anywhere with an internet connection.
• Better than Commercial Clouds: CIPRES provides compute time at rates as low as $0.009 per CPU hour, with 150GB of free storage and domain-specific support, far more economical than commercial cloud services.

Starter Plan Includes:

• 1,000 Compute Hours
• Priority Queuing: Jobs under 6 hours run on dedicated CIPRES nodes.
• 150 GB Storage: Indefinite, with annual login.
• 20+ Benchmarked Codes: Automatically configured for efficient runs.
• Timely Support

Higher-Level Subscriptions

For more extensive needs, higher-tier subscriptions offer:

• Up to 200,000 Compute Hours
• Custom Job Runs: Assistance from HPC experts.
• New Tools and Features: On request.

For a full description of CIPRES pricing tiers, please refer here. If you have specific requirements, please contact us.

Thank you for your continued support of CIPRES.