1. A computer system, comprising: a high performance computing (HPC) platform comprising a plurality of processors for executing parallel processings; and a set of middleware components, as executed by at least one processor in said computer system, providing a capability for inputting to the high performance computing platform a synchronization and a scheduling of individual data transfer and computing tasks on the high performance computing platform, wherein the set of middleware components comprises: a job scheduler that receives a job submission description file, wherein the job submission description file comprises an XML (Extensible Markup Language)-based job submission description file, that encodes various steps in an application workflow, based on extending a JSDL (job submission description language) schema; and a data-staging gateway which automates a data extraction and migration for an HPC application from remote data sources, wherein the remote data sources selectively include any of Structured Query Language (SQL) databases, spreadsheets, and flat files, using specifications in the job submission description file, so as to control an execution of data format conversions and access protocols to automatically extract data from a remote data source and to store the extracted data in a file system associated with the HPC platform, in a format defined by the job submission description file, said remote data sources comprising data sources at locations accessible via a network with access latency times longer than an access latency of data within a local area network of said HPC platform.