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'Building Grids for Europe' brochure
Table of contents
Building Grids for Europe
Existing Grids in academic environments are considered to deliver adequate performance by their users if they are operational only 80–90 % of the time. Furthermore, as universities using Grids are staffed with world-class computer scientists who intimately understand what they themselves have built, the problem of restarting after a crash can be overcome, even if — in difficult cases — up to 20 personnel are required to restart following a system failure.
However, in industry, performance levels of, for example, at least 99.5% ‘uptime’ for IT systems are required and expected. This is especially the case for critical systems used to monitor global financial markets or nuclear power stations. Similarly for industry an IT system cannot be overly complex and require teams of computer scientists to be constantly ‘on call’ in case it suddenly crashes.
When talking about Grids what is required is that the Grid be ‘virtualised’: the complex resource brokering and management going on behind the scenes, hidden behind a user-friendly layer of standard, interoperable interfaces.
The research world also worries less about security — Grids were originally developed, after all, to help researchers share data and solve problems together. However, data and resource sharing taking place in industry needs to be controlled through reliable and trusted access and authentication systems.
Finally, most Grids today are built around an early set of de facto standards and toolkits. A new generation of industrial strength global standards are required to fully exploit the Grid’s potential.
Towards 2010: Next generation Grids for industry and business
The European Commission has been financing Grid research since early 2000, when the first EU projects were launched under the fifth research Framework Programme (FP5). The Grid research projects under FP5 were focused on technology development and application pilots. Results of these Grid projects are now deployed, for example, in the Grid-enabled research infrastructures made available by FP6 projects EGEE and DEISA.
In FP6 (2002–06), a new two-fold approach for Grid research is being pursued from the outset:
- technology push: developing the underlying technologies and tackling generic issues such as integration, open standards and interoperability;
- application pull: developing the enabling technologies required for real world applications, such as modelling, simulation, data-mining and collaboration.
The budget for Grids in FP6 is more than double that in FP5, demonstrating the field’s strategic importance. There will also be an increased emphasis on developing open standards, using open source and developing and testing Grids over GEANT, the world’s most powerful research network which links over 3000 research institutions across Europe.
Among the first 12 FP6 IST Grid research projects launched in summer 2004 (see figure on right hand side) are four major projects each receiving an average of EUR 9.3 million in EU funding. These will create a ‘critical mass’ of expertise and resources from across Europe in essential areas, as described below.
- The CoreGRID network of excellence addresses longer term Grid research, creating the foundations for next generation Grids towards 2010 and beyond. The project brings together existing Grid research communities by creating virtual 'centres of excellence'.
- CoreGRID information sheet (PDF, 147KB)
- The NextGRID integrated project is focusing on the underlying technologies of the NextGeneration Grid, aiming to deliver a new Grid architecture by the end of the decade. Inter alia work addresses security and business models, taking into account requirements from sectors such as finance and media.
- NextGRID information sheet (PDF, 143KB)
- The Akogrimo integrated project is developing mobile Grid architectures and services. Building on Europe's strengths in mobile communications, the project will demonstrate a vision of 'dynamic virtual organisations' in pilot applications in e-health and e-learning.
- Akogrimo information sheet (PDF, 138KB)
- The SIMDAT integrated project will develop generic Grid technologies for industry in the areas of data integration, collaboration and knowledge discovery. The focus is on the use of Grids to solve complex problems in important sectors such as aerospace, automotive, pharmacology and meteorology.
- SIMDAT information sheet (PDF, 146KB)
Seven smaller ‘specific targeted research projects’ focus on issues such as knowledge extraction, workflows, datamining, collaboration, trust and security.