We are honored to have our article, “Enabling Reproducibility through the SPHERE Research Infrastructure,” published in USENIX ;login: Online, a digital magazine of the USENIX Association. This publication serves as a platform for technical articles, case studies, and research reports on system administration, security, networking, and software development.

Our article is one of five recently announced by USENIX, covering topics such as security research infrastructure, site reliability engineering (SRE), effective use of non-volatile memory (NVM), and quantum computing.

The article details how the NSF-funded SPHERE research infrastructure advances cybersecurity and privacy research by enabling reproducible, sophisticated experiments, fostering peer review, and accelerating scientific progress. It was authored by Jelena Mirkovic, Brian Kocoloski, and David Balenson from USC-ISI and was shepherded by ;login: editor Rik Farrow.

The article explores the motivation behind SPHERE, its architecture, key components and services, and its impact on researchers and educators. By providing a shared, well-supported research infrastructure, SPHERE streamlines experimentation, enhances collaboration, and enables faster progress across the cybersecurity community.

“In the age of cloud apps, having infrastructure that supports security research is more important than ever,” said Rik Farrow. “SPHERE provides arrays of networked devices, embedded systems, and IoT devices that would be difficult for researchers to come by—and even harder for those seeking to verify research results.”

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to share our work with the USENIX community,” said David Balenson, SPHERE’s Community Outreach Director.

Read the full article on the USENIX website: Enabling Reproducibility through the SPHERE Research Infrastructure.

SPHERE is currently open to beta users at https://sphere-testbed.net. Visit the SPHERE project page for the latest updates, collaboration opportunities, and future development plans.