This analysis is an attempt to digest and make readable the large amount of information accumulated during the collection phase of the GridCoord survey project. The complete contributions of the GridCoord partners can be found in the AnnexPart II of this compendium. The diversity and heterogeneity of the individual contributions by the GridCoord partners emphasises the need for a comprehensive synthesis of the collected information. The diversity of the contributions is due to the different approaches to Grid Research, to national and cultural traditions, to different funding schemes. This diversity is also a proof and evidence how vibrant Grid research is in Europe.
The analysis starts with a short historical overview of Grid research in Europe, followed by an examination of the major current research directions and motivations. The driving forces are investigated and where feasible the degree of adoption in various field of science, industry and business. The analysis attempts as well to comprehend and interpret the different funding schemes, and provide an approximate figure of the amount of money spent for Grid Research in the surveyed GridCoord countries. Finally, the analysis shortly describes links to industry and business and their involvement.
Historical overview of Grid Research in GridCoord Countries
The name “Grid” was coined in the US in the mid ’90, however, this does not mean that Europe was not active in research in parallel and distributed computing, supercomputing, and metacomputing. Several European countries have a long tradition in the above-mentioned fields and pioneered research activities. The following table gives a historical glimpse at the research approaches that led to the development of Grid Computing in the surveyed countries. We can distinguish between loose, bottom-up approaches pioneered by research communities (computer science and applications) and a more co-ordinated, top-down approach coming from funding authorities. Also, a distinction can be made between infrastructure-oriented approaches which are often more coherent and research-oriented approaches that tackle specific open problems of Grid research. The rapid development of networking technology has allowed for easier coupling of distributed applications and the progress European countries made in deploying advanced research and education networks and their interconnection were instrumental in triggering the uptake of Grid Computing.
Grid computing can be seen as an evolutionary technology, capturing existing technology trends (technology push) like networked computing, clusters and blades that enable new sets and mechanism for delivering ubiquitous and predictable services. In addition there is an application pull, initial coming from several sciences disciplines needing access to instruments and databases distributed all over the world. Applications have evolved from once simple, often monolithic, computer-or server-centric binaries to services that are disaggregated and then distributed across the network. However, there is also a revolutionary and radical component/perspective: Grid computing mandates a systemic rather component-centric approach: it requires giving up personal ownership of hardware and using the resources of others, a collectivistic mentality that must will have to learn to consider. Grid computing is designed for change, going far beyond sheer computing power. Hence, the reason why Grid Computing is radical is mainly sociological.
The following table is a summary of the history chapters from the individual contributions.
History Summary Table
Country
|
Timing
|
National Initiatives/Projects
|
Approaches/
Drivers
|
Institutions
|
Austria
|
Before 2003
Since 2003
|
Individual Researchers; Austrian Centre for Parallel Computation (ACPC)
Austrian Grid Consortium
|
Bottom-up
Co-ordinated
|
Universities
|
France
|
Since 1996
Since 1998
Since 2001
Since 2003 2005
|
Individual Researchers,
RNRT, RNTL programmes,
ACI
Grid5000
Reorganisation in the newly created ANRGrid5000, “National Research Agency”
|
Computer Science oriented;
Bottom-up, loose co-ordination
|
INRIA, CNRS, Universities
|
Germany
|
Early 1990
Late 1990
Since 2004
|
Individual research projects
Unicore, Access to HPC systems
D-Grid Initiative
|
Loose co-ordination
Regional initiatives; Application-driven
|
Universities, Research Labs
|
Hungary
|
Since 2000
Since 2003
|
Early work on Grids
Hungarian Grid Competence Centre
|
Bottom-up, Infrastructure-oriented
|
Universities, MTA SZTAKI
|
Italy
|
Since 1990
Since 1994
1995-2000
2000
2002-2004
2002-2005
Early 2003
2005
|
Parallel Computing and High Performance Computing
HPC
Special programme on Metacomputing for the solution of large-scale problems in engineering
PQE2000 Project
INFN Grid
Grid Computing: enabling technologies and applications for e-science
High-performance Large-scale Distributed Platform
Grid.it, PON
IG-BIGEST (Italian Grid for e-Business, e-Industry e-Government and e-Science & Technology)
Grid Technology Platform
|
Computer Science oriented;
Parallel and Metacomputing oriented
Infrastructure-oriented
|
Universities, CNR
INFN
Universities, CNR
Universities
CNR
INFN
INFN, CNR
|
Netherlands
|
1993
2003
|
Distributed ASCI Supercomputer (DAS)
VL-e, LOFAR
DutchGrid
|
Supercomputing
Science/application oriented
Infrastructure-oriented
|
Universities and Labs
|
Poland
|
Since 2002
|
Progress, ClusteriX, LDAP, SGIGrid, Vlab
|
Infrastructure-oriented
|
Research Labs, Universities
|
Spain
|
2000
2002
2004-2007
|
First Grid Projects
Thematic Networks and Working Groups
e-Science in National Research Programme
IRISGrid
|
Application-oriented
Infrastructure-oriented
|
Individual researchers
|
Sweden
|
Since 1990
2002
2003
|
HPC PDC at KTH
Swedish HPC Metacenter
SWEgrid
|
Supercomputing
Applications, e-Science
|
Universities and Research Labs
|
UK
|
Since 2001
|
e-Science initiative
Core e-Science Programme
|
Science/application oriented
|
Universities and Research Labs
|
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