Innovation on solid grounds broad agreement amongst those in the field At a glance Technology plays such an integral role in our daily lives that many of us give barely a second thought NorduGrid’s success has not been achieved that collaboration and knowledge sharing to the underlying infrastructure on which it depends. Professor Farid-Ould Saada of NorduGrid through standing still. Change is ongoing in bring the prospect of truly interoperable Full Project Title the technology sector, meaning there is a solutions closer. This brings more immediate NorduGrid and related projects explains how their work in improving Grid middleware will bring significant benefits to end users constant need to adapt to new demands and benefits, particularly for open-source evolving concerns. This is something projects like NorduGrid. “Enhancements and Definition explicitly reflected in NorduGrid’s overall new functionalities are being added gradually NorduGrid is a Grid Research and philosophy, which marries solid technological during the lifetime of the middleware,” Development collaboration which foundations with a real commitment to explains Ould-Saada. “Such development is aims to develop, maintain and meeting users needs. “The original ARC usually triggered by user requests, and is support the free Grid middleware. middleware was heavily reliant on some of often done in collaboration with other related The ARC solution the rather old technologies found in the projects, such as the NDGF or the ‘Innovative Objectives Globus Toolkit. We then developed a number Tools and Services for NorduGrid’ project The aim of the NorduGrid collaboration of innovative solutions which deviated (NGin). Good examples of such cooperation is to deliver a robust, scalable, portable significantly from Globus ones. The new are the accounting system developed by and fully featured solution for a global for Grid middleware generation of ARC middleware that is being Swegrid, the Application Portal developed by computational and data Grid system. developed with EU support through the and the security and data- KnowARC project is a completely new management enhancements that are being Contact solution that has no parallels,” says Ould- developed by Finnish, Norwegian and Professor Farid Ould-Saada, The expectations of technology users Saada. “However, we cannot really call it a Swedish students in the NGIn project.” University of seem to rise on a virtually continual basis. radical departure as the most radical thing Of course the needs of end users need to Department of Physics No sooner has an innovative, sophisticated about this new middleware is that it complies be kept firmly in mind when developing new Post Office box 1048, Blindern product hit the market than demand is with community Grid standards and is technologies. Users typically only choose 0316 Oslo, stimulated for newer, faster, more responsive implemented in the Open Grid Services over its conventional technologies. The same holds true for Grid Architecture (OGSA). In the past not many counterpart if it can bring significant added T: +47 2285 5056 computing. Just as cluster computing was Grid development projects relied on standards benefits. Ould-Saada says that the NorduGrid F: +47 2285 6422 the next step for workstation-based – for the simple reason that these standards project have identified some key priorities in W: www.nordugrid.org computation, so the ongoing development of did not really exist, indeed they have only this area. “The primary benefit Grid W: www.knowarc.eu Grid technologies represents an important started to emerge relatively recently. technologies can offer is simple access to E:[email protected] move forward in terms of computing for Contributing to standards development massive computing and storage resources,” advanced research. “By making use of processes is one of the main objectives of he explains. “The key word here is ‘simple’. excellent wide-area networks Grid NorduGrid and related projects.” Users often have no opportunity to learn computing naturally extends the term The pursuit of such goals demands that the complicated procedures; neither can they ‘distributed computing’ from nodes in a project collaborate closely with their easily change their working environment. cluster to clusters in a Grid,” explains European peers. This is something NorduGrid Thus portability comes as a natural Professor Farid Ould-Saada, the chairman recognised at an early stage. “NorduGrid has consequence of the simplicity requirement Professor Farid Ould-Saada of NorduGrid, a collaboration working to historically cooperated closely with a number and vice-versa. If the middleware is simple advance Grid technologies. of European Grid initiatives. This started enough and does not rely on a multitude of KnowARC project director, “The main goal of NorduGrid is to develop, with the EU DataGrid (EDG, 2001-2004), additional conditions then it will be pretty NorduGrid Chair maintain and support a free open source where we were one of the associated partners straightforward to deploy it on any Grid middleware, the Advanced Resource The ARC middleware is deployed all over the world and took an active part in middleware underlying system. This is the main principle Farid Ould-Saada works as a Professor Connector (ARC),” he continues. “Although development and integration,” says Ould- of NorduGrid: think simple.” in the Department of physics at the NorduGrid started as a project (2001-2002), Ould-Saada. “A growing number of national fulfil them. This is something of which Ould- Saada. “We have established very close ties This approach may come as a surprise to , a position he has it actually evolved into a long-term R & D and international infrastructure projects have Saada is well aware, indeed he points to with a number of projects, especially in the those who find the world of technology a held since 1999. He has extensive collaboration based on a Memorandum of chosen the non-intrusive, reliable, lightweight NorduGrid’s work in developing middleware area of interoperability. We are also very daunting, disorienting place. However it is experience in different fields of Understanding between the members. ARC ARC as their middleware. Swegrid was the capable of serving multiple platforms as an active in standardisation work and contribute this focus on simplicity that, in large part, particle and nuclear physics and takes is a result of the cooperation between several first, and the decision of a national Grid illustration of the project’s forward-looking to the Open Grid Forum (OGF), proof that we explains why the project has been able to a leading role in NorduGrid-related projects initiated and supported by infrastructure to use ARC middleware was an focus. “The ARC currently being deployed are collaborating not only on the European make the advances that it has. “The success of activities. In particular, he is chair NorduGrid: the EU-funded KnowARC important milestone for NorduGrid. Other runs on most Linux distributions. One of the level but on a wider basis as well. We ARC has been due to the fact that it has of the NorduGrid collaboration and project, the Nordic DataGrid Facility, and quickly followed, including goals of the KnowARC project (the main cooperate closely with the OMII-Europe and followed a bottom-up approach. We have director of the Know ARC EU-project. the Nordunet3-funded NGIn project that Norgrid in Norway, M-Grid in and NorduGrid-related R & D project funded by EGEE projects, and are actively involved in been able to develop functional, non-invasive, focuses on research and education (PhD DCSC in – all of which rely on ARC. the EU) is to make ARC function on the the EGI Design Study via the middleware cost-efficient, easy to install middleware and programme, Grid school).” This ultimately led to the establishment of the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS platforms task force. Not only do these projects use it on existing heterogeneous computing With the effective operation of national NDGF, which set the goal of providing a as well,” he outlines. “The objectives of the influence NorduGrid strategic decisions, but and storage resources,” says Ould-Saada. Grid infrastructures reliant on their distributed regional computing centre (Tier1) KnowARC project are to create a novel, we in turn have an effect on the development “The good contacts that have developed underlying infrastructures, the provision of for CERN computing. Only ARC middleware powerful Next Generation Grid middleware, direction they take. The overall goal is to between developers, users and system reliable middleware takes on great importance. can make this possible, there are no other to promote Grid standardisation and share knowledge and forces in order to administrators has been instrumental in this This is a role in which NorduGrid has been comparable distributed centres.” interoperability, and to increase the take- converge towards interoperable Grid process. NorduGrid and its related projects notably successful. “ARC has been facilitating Having set such ambitious objectives it is up of Grid technologies and thus bridge the solutions. Standardisation is the key here.” cover the full research chain, from R&D, the reliable implementation of fundamental clear that NorduGrid must maintain a real gaps between business and academia in This goal of enabling interoperability is deployment and support right through to Grid services and utilities since 2002,” says focus on innovation if they are to be able to Grid development.” yet to be fully achieved. However, there is maintenance, application and education.” ★

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