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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JUNE 30, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 26
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Special Features:
NEW SOFTWARE FOR GLOBUS TOOLKIT
RELEASED FOR GRIDS
Platform Computing and the Globus Project announced that Platform's new
"Community Scheduler Framework" (CSF) will be contributed for inclusion in
future releases of the Globus Toolkit, a set of software and services that
is central to Grid computing. The target for inclusion is Fall 2003.
CSF will provide an extensible framework for implementing so-called "meta-
schedulers," which can negotiate with heterogeneous workload execution
software such as Platform LSF, to acquire the right resources to fulfill
computing requirements. Organizations can coordinate scheduling needs to meet
service-level agreements regardless of where resources are hosted or which
local resource management software is used. This results in simplified,
efficient use of distributed IT infrastructure and increased cost savings.
Platform's OGSI-compliant meta-scheduler will work within the Open Grid
Services Architecture (OGSA) that is the basis of Globus Toolkit v3.0 (see www.globus.org/toolkit). The CSF
alpha version is available at ftp.platform.com/pub/openso
urce/gcsf/.
By building on popular Web services standards, OGSI-compliant Grid services
will facilitate creation of self-contained business functions that operate
over the grid, enabling organizations to scale their grid deployments across
previously incompatible clusters of resources. The technology will also allow
Grid resource management software from multiple vendors to interoperate across
an organization and at participating service providers.
With CSF, Platform has developed the first prototype implementation of an
OGSI-compliant specification called "Agreement-based Grid Service Management
(OGSI-Agreement)", a first draft of which was recently submitted for
consideration within the Global Grid Forum. This specification will be a
framework on which enterprises may dynamically negotiate access to all
heterogeneous applications and resources on the Grid in a consistent manner,
improving services and reducing costs.
"The Globus Project has actively encouraged industry participation, both in
terms of contributing open source Grid software and helping to set standards,"
said Ian Foster, associate division director for mathematics and computer
science at Argonne National Laboratory and professor of computer science at
the University of Chicago. "Platform Computing is a contributor in both these
areas, and we look forward to receiving this contribution from Platform for
future inclusion in the Globus Toolkit. We are hopeful that CSF will provide a
strong foundation for building both production and experimental meta-
schedulers."
"With a mind to encouraging innovation through interoperability, Platform
is
committed to support, drive and contribute to grid standards and software,"
said Ian Baird, Chief Business Architect, Platform. "The Community Scheduler
Framework raises the bar on interoperability, providing customers with the
confidence to extend existing grid implementations and enabling them to focus
on innovation rather than integration and configuration."
About the Globus Project
Based at Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Southern
California's
Information Sciences Institute, and the University of Chicago, the Globus
Project conducts research and development to create the fundamental
technologies behind the "Grid," which lets people share computing power,
databases, and other tools securely online across corporate, institutional,
and geographic boundaries without sacrificing local autonomy.
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