Grid Definitions & Perspectives January 2005

1. Grid Definitions & Perspectives January 2005 Mary Fran Yafchak IT Program Coordinator, SURA maryfran@sura.org

2. Some Perspectives on… • What is a grid? • Why bother with a grid? • (Just a few) Examples • How to use this workshop

3. 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 (?)

4. 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

5. 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)

6. Some Examples… Disclaimer Mary Fran’s slides live here.

7. 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

8. Research Grids • Again, too numerous to list. Examples: • Grids-Center www.grids-center.org • TeraGrid www.teragrid.org • Opti-Puterwww.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

9. 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 will connect multiple local, regional, national and international grids to create a universal source of distributed knowledge discovery and creation. The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure, Edited by Ian Foster & Carl Kesselman, 1st Edition, 1999 (Now in its 2nd Edition, 2003)

10. Grids as Infrastructure • Can learn something about this from all grids • Recognize where we place boundaries • Resource boundaries • Type-of-use boundaries • Type-of-user boundaries • Develop/practice mutually respectful traversal of boundaries

11. 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?

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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…)

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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!