Tying together many distributed computers into a single computational resource is made possible through the use of Grid standards and middleware. EPCC has expertise in both the development and practical deployment of distributed computing infrastructures for real applications.
Example Projects
-
BEinGRID
BEinGRID demonstrated the benefits of distributed computing to European businesses. The project developed innovative solutions for distributed data management, security, licence management, portals, VO management, and SLAs. 25 pilot projects deployed these in partnership with businesses. EPCC has been involved in the following BEinGRID activities:
1. Developed the OGSA-DAI Data Publisher to make OGSA-DAI deployment easier and the OGSA-DAI Trigger for distributed event management.
2. FilmGrid produced a distributed digital asset manager for movie post-production.
3. GRID2(B2B) applied the OGSA-DAI trigger to automate synchronisation between distributed B2B systems, and to do so at an affordable cost for small suppliers.
4. Gridipedia is a one-stop shop for case studies, business analyses and demonstrations in the areas of distributed, grid and cloud computing.
-
GridSAFE
Grid-SAFE is developing a software framework to support accounting, reporting, usage monitoring and resource management on advanced computing facilities. The results will be applicable to both Grid-enabled and non-Grid operating environments, and we are actively working with early adopters to test and deploy Grid-SAFE software against a range of different computing platforms.
-
INWA
The INWA (Innovation Node: Western Australia) project linked Australia, China & the United Kingdom with the world’s longest computing grid. It was also the first of its type. INWA investigated the suitability of existing Grid technologies for secure, commercial datamining. Datamining is of increasing value for large organisations. It can be used by a company in the commercial sense, for example, to predict customer trends, develop new products and better meet customer needs.
The three-continent grid linked computers at EPCC in the UK, Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.