Introducing Cloud Workstation, a new way to work in Code Ocean
On the heels of our release last month that paved the way for major improvements to Code Ocean, we’re excited to announce that Interactive Sessions have gotten an upgrade to become Cloud Workstation.
You can launch a Cloud Workstation with JupyterLab or RStudio to develop or test code on a powerful cloud computing machine using familiar tools and workflows. Cloud Workstation works from directly within a capsule, allowing you to get up and running quickly with the same environment setup you know and love (or starting from an existing capsule.) Working on a Cloud Workstation feels just like working on your own machine — but without the restrictions of being tied to a local computer and its limited resources. Within a Cloud Workstation session, you can break down code, allowing you to test and iterate on individual sections, a powerful alternative to running the project from start to finish in the Reproducibility Pane.
Think of a Cloud Workstation as a virtual development space inside a compute capsule where you can test out new parameters, debug code, or otherwise experiment with your computational work in a space that is familiar and intuitive to your own workflow. With a Cloud Workstation, you can avoid setting up a local compute environment and access powerful compute resources instantly.
And when you are done, everything syncs back to your Code Ocean compute capsule, keeping reproducibility best practices a natural part of your workflow while allowing you the flexibility to work and test how you want, when you want.
One last note: our blue “Run” button, which has been a staple of the platform from the beginning, was renamed in our last update to “Reproducible Run” in anticipation of the Cloud Workstation launch as a complementary way to interact with Code Ocean capsules.
For a guide on creating your own Cloud Workstation, check out our collection of articles at help.codeocean.com. We also welcome feedback on Cloud Workstations at support@codeocean.com.
