EPCC believes that Grid computing is a vital technology for science and business.
The explosive growth of the World Wide Web indicates the potential for the creation of grids that are data, sensor and computation rich. The key problem is how to manage the underlying communications infrastructure, database technology and computational resources to provide flexible, robust and scalable services. The creation of knowledge from these resources will then require new techniques for extracting, classifying and transforming data into information. This requires us to solve critical problems extending from applications software, through middleware, to new communications technologies.
EPCC is involved in Grid computing from top to bottom:
- we have a number of projects developing Grid middleware and architecture tools to facilitate the uptake of eScience across the UK and beyond;
- we are engaged in developing business applications to bring the benefits of Grid technologies out of the lab and into business;
- we collaborate in a number of scientific applications and demonstration projects, addressing directly the needs of eScience in the UK.
As a consequence of the early success of the OGSA-DAI data access and integration project, EPCC and Malcolm Atkinson of NeSC were invited to join the Globus Alliance in 2003. The Globus Alliance is an international collaboration that conducts research and development to create fundamental Grid technologies. Most famous of these is the Globus Toolkit, a world-leading open source product that has become the de-facto standard Grid software. OGSA-DAI has for many years, and continues to be, compatible with the Globus Toolkit, allowing OGSA-DAI to exploit the Toolkit’s support for web services, service discovery and security. OGSA-DAI has also been released as a component within Globus Toolkit distributions.
EPCC is also a founder member of the UK’s National e-Science Centre (NeSC), the hub of Grid and e-Science activity in the UK. EPCC and NeSC, together with the universities of Manchester and Southampton, are partners in OMII-UK, an organisation that offers consultancy and products to the UK e-Science community.