Grid Definitions &
Perspectives
January 2005
Mary Fran Yafchak
IT Program Coordinator, SURA
maryfran@sura.org
Some Perspectives on…
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What is a grid?
Why bother with a grid?
(Just a few) Examples
How to use this workshop
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What is a Grid?
• Project Grids
– Local, regional, national or international – virtual
organization (VO) as the boundary
• Research Grids
– Grids to research…Grids! Distributed computing,
virtual machines, how to share, how to scale
• Grid as infrastructure
– Departmental -> enterprise/campus -> public?
• The Grid (InternetX?)
– So advanced, it’s dull. As exciting as plugging in a
lamp; as necessary as air (?)
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Why bother with a Grid?
• Broaden access to unique resources
– Increasing number of “expected” users but also
access for “unexpected” users
• Create Grid gestalt
– Develop mega-powerful capabilities by combining
the most powerful that we have now
– Coordinate less powerful resources to act together
so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
• Recoup “lost” or wasted resources
– Use systems during times of typical non-use;
make use of systems that might be discarded
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Why bother with a Grid?
Viewed another way:
• Greater Access to High Performance
Computing Resources
• Creation of a new High Performance
Computing Resource
• Or maybe - not High but simply Higher
Performance Computing (revive, reuse)
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Some Examples…
Disclaimer
Mary Fran’s
slides live here.
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Project Grids
• Numerous - BIRN, GriPhyN, iVDGL, LEAD,
NEESGrid, PPDG, SCOOP, etc.
• Put succinctly, from caBig http://cabig.nci.nih.gov
Voluntary network or grid…to enable the sharing of data and tools…goal is to
speed the delivery of innovative approaches for the prevention and treatment of
cancer…infrastructure and tools have broad utility outside the cancer community.
• Read more at:
– CERN’s Grid Café
http://gridcafe.web.cern.ch/gridcafe/gridprojects/projects.html
– SURA Testbed Catalog of Grid Applications
http://art12.gsu.edu:8080/grid_cat/index5.jsp
– Grid Projects & Deployment System
(GRIDS Center -> Globus) http://www.gpds.org
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Research Grids
• Again, too numerous to list. Examples:
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Grids-Center www.grids-center.org
TeraGrid
www.teragrid.org
Opti-Puter
www.optiputer.net
GRID3/OpenScienceGrid www.ivdgl.org/grid2003
SURA Testbed Grid
www.nsf-middleware.org/testbed/testbed_status.asp#grid
• Share, Scale: Authn/authz (policies & technology),
security, reliability, flexibility, performance,
scheduling, monitoring, ease of access & use (portals
& other interfaces), accounting, sociology
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Grids as Infrastructure
From “that Grid book” Preface, 1st Edition:
The grid will connect multiple
regional and national
computational grids to create
a universal source of
computing power.
Maybe modify to…?
The Grid: Blueprint for a New
Computing Infrastructure,
Edited by Ian Foster & Carl
Kesselman, 1st Edition, 1999
(Now in its 2nd Edition, 2003)
The grid will connect multiple
local, regional, national and
international grids to create a
universal source of distributed
knowledge discovery and
creation.
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Grids as Infrastructure
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Can learn something about this from all
grids
Recognize where we place boundaries
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Resource boundaries
Type-of-use boundaries
Type-of-user boundaries
Develop/practice mutually respectful
traversal of boundaries
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More on Boundaries
Resource Boundaries
– Project/Application (target communities)
– Enterprise (campus grids a special case?)
• New in GGF: EGR-RG (Enterprise Grid Requirements
Research Group) https://forge.gridforum.org/projects/egr-rg
– Existing government & cultural borders
• Texas Internet Grid for Research & Education (TIGRE),
http://www.hipcat.net/projects/tigre.php
• CoGrid, http://cogrid.colostate.edu
• SINET - Japan national grid, http://www.sinet.ad.jp
– Similar to local, intra-, inter-, Inter-net?
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-Use Boundaries
– A Computational Grid? A Data Grid? A Storage
Grid? Visualization Grid? Application Grid?
Reminds me of a time…
– A “Web browser” or something more?
http://www.sura.org
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-Use Boundaries
– A Computational Grid? A Data Grid? A Storage
Grid? Visualization Grid? Application Grid?
Reminds me of a time…
– A “Web browser” or something more?
http://www.sura.org
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-Use Boundaries
– A Computational Grid? A Data Grid? A Storage
Grid? Visualization Grid? Application Grid?
Reminds me of a time…
– A “Web browser” or something more?
http://www.sura.org
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu
telnet://denver.ipac.caltech.edu
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-Use Boundaries
– A Computational Grid? A Data Grid? A Storage
Grid? Visualization Grid? Application Grid?
Reminds me of a time…
– A “Web browser” or something more?
http://www.sura.org
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu
telnet://denver.ipac.caltech.edu
news://alt.binaries.mac.applications
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-Use Boundaries
– A Computational Grid? A Data Grid? A Storage
Grid? Visualization Grid? Application Grid?
Reminds me of a time…
– A “Web browser” or something more?
http://www.sura.org
ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu
telnet://denver.ipac.caltech.edu
news://alt.binaries.mac.applications
gopher://nysernet.org
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More on Boundaries
Type-of-User Boundaries
• Researchers
• Faculty
• Students? E.g., Georgia State University:
– Distributed Muon Detector Project (see NMI Testbed Case study series
- handout on literature table)
– Nova Ahmed’s Genome Alignment Application on NMI Testbed Grid
(see later presentations)
• Staff? Home users?
– Folding@home, SETI@home, ComputeAgainstCancer,
fightAIDS@home, etc.
– Initially passive. More active some day? (FuelOil@home…)
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On Boundaries in General…
• Good news
– Help divide & conquer design and implementation
– Can produce results quickly for a target community
• Bad news
– Lead to lack of awareness of parallel efforts, common needs
– False sense that services can be developed serially
Working in parallel can produce great synergy,
bring value from common knowledge & solutions,
speed us more quickly to…
The Grid.
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The Grid
• Like the electrical grid? The highway system?
The telecommunications system? Land use?
Today’s Internet?
• Usage begins & grows - without development
or refinement of [possibly key] functionality once usefulness is apparent
• One thing stands out - We need to work and
learn together to grow in the best directions
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Again from That Grid Book
“We believe that one significant barrier to the
widespread deployment and application of
[computational] grids is the lack of a clear vision of
how grids are used, what they look like, and the
nature of any obstacles to progress.”
[From The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure, 1st Edition preface]
Still the case today?
• Not a sign that we will never get done but that
significant developments take time.
• Work together to reduce time required and
improve the final product.
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How to Use This Workshop
• Overviews - Not for the definition but illuminating
possible definitions
• Parade of Grids - Highlighting diversity in focus,
approach and stages of deployment.
• Focus Studies - Case studies to drill down and
compare/contrast to your own
• Ask-A-Grid-Expert - Experts on the panel and
experts in the audience – Share!
• Breakouts - Hot topics & more detail - Participate!
• Further Context - Deployment is not in a void.
Take note!
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