Breaking News -
General:
New Book On Grid Computing
Published
A new book that takes a comprehensive look at grid computing has just been
released. The editors of the volume are Fran Berman, UCSD and SDSC; Geoffrey
Fox, Community Grids Lab, Indiana University; and Tony Hey, University of
Southampton, UK, who is also the director of the British E-Science Core
Program, the major UK grid-building effort.
The book brings together many of the major projects that are driving and
shaping an emerging global Grid. In four major parts (43 chapters), 108
contributors -- a pioneering group of developers, researchers, and
applications scientists -- give their perspectives on the present and future
of grid computing worldwide. A global Grid will transform science, business,
health, and, indeed, society.
Common to all perspectives, the editors note, is the notion that the Grid
supports the integration of resources: computers, networks, data archives,
instruments, sensor networks, and whatever else needs to be integrated. Grid
developers are working in coordination to ensure that grid software will be
robust and provide an interoperable collection of services that supports the
use of integrated resources.
The book begins with an overview of the Grid in broad terms; then 18
chapters
focus on grid architectures, with summaries of the major long-term pre-grid
and grid projects, as well as those currently being planned. The next 14
chapters cover the design and implementation of grid computing environments,
which focus on linkages among the more macroscopic aspects of what we think of
as "computer programming": whole programs, files, library routines, and
services. How should the grid look to a user accessing some or all of its
services? What tools should be built to accommodate users with differing goals
and strategies?
The last part of the book is about grid applications, which address the
science that the grid uniquely enables. Examples come from many disciplines,
and, as various contributors point out, from interdisciplinary,
multidisciplinary, and suprainstitutional efforts. In addition to
comprehensive reference lists following each chapter, Grid Computing: Making
the Global Infrastructure a Reality contains a very useful index ("where we
have spelt out essentially all abbreviations to clarify the acronym-soup
characterizing the Grid arena"), a set of "views of the Grid" that give
crosscutting references across the divisions of the book, an "Indirect
Glossary" linking succinct descriptions of many key Grid-related concepts, and
a listing of more than 70 known grid projects now operating.
As the cover copy notes, it's a "must read" for all researchers and
managers
of organizations that will make investments in Grid technology. The book is a
volume in the Wiley Series in Communications Networking and Distributed
Systems, and more information can be found at Geoffrey Fox's website for the
book.
--Merry Maisel
|
