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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
GRID TOP DOGS ON GGF11,
COOPERATION WITH EGA
By Tom Tabor, Publisher
Between beautiful sunrises and glorious sunsets, more than 500
practitioners
from around the world, including the Grid elite, gathered this week at GGF11
in Honolulu. The five-day conference focused primarily on Grid standards and
broad deployment challenges of Grid technologies. GRIDtoday caught up with
those responsible for enticing so many to the island paradise, only to stick
those attendees in all-day, indoor meetings.
Tom Tabor, publisher of GRIDtoday, sat down with GGF Chair Charlie Catlett,
GGF Executive Director Steve Crumb and GGF11 Program Chair, and global
coordinator of SGI Grid strategy, Walter Stewart to discuss the event and what
to expect for GGF12.
GRIDtoday: It's nice to get a chance to sit down with you
guys, and I'm wondering, overall, how are the meetings going?
CHARLIE CATLETT: Great! Many folks have made comments to
me
that with each GGF meeting they are more and more impressed with how well our
working groups and research groups are operating; and with the quality of our
focused workshops.
Gt: That's good to hear. Specifically, what were some of your
key objectives at these meetings?
CATLETT: We had two themes to this meeting. The first was
that we wanted to examine and expose the state of operational Grids in support
of research -- the good, the bad and the ugly. This information exchange was
tremendously useful not just to those running Grids, but also to those who are
just getting started, in that this helps them to understand how to plan their
Grid deployment with the benefit of others' experiences.
The second theme was our growing collaborations with other standards
bodies.
We were delighted to have a keynote from Jamie Clark, manager for technical
standards development for OASIS, as well as speakers from W3C, DMTF and EGA.
I was particularly pleased to see the collaborative spirit evidenced on our
panel on Grid standards collaboration. The panel included Jamie Clark (OASIS),
Roger Reich (Veritas, DMTF), Philippe Le Hegaret (W3C), Adrian Cockcroft (Sun,
EGA) and Dave Snelling (Fujitsu, GGF).
Gt: Alright. Where are you in terms of accomplishing these
two goals?
CATLETT: Well, I would say, judging from the number of new
faces involved in the discussions about production Grid experience ... I'd say
we made very good progress in terms of helping those who are deploying Grids.
This providing of a forum for exchanging, and spreading, experience is
something we have a lot of experience doing -- it has been one of the
long-standing strengths of GGF. It's increasingly important as more industries
begin to adopt Grid computing.
Our other focus -- cultivating collaboration among standards organizations
--
is also going to be more and more important as Grid technologies are adopted,
deployed and used. Because we had many representatives here from OASIS, EGA,
W3C and DMTF, we were able to spend some time brainstorming about how to
better work together. With OASIS, DMTF and W3C we were able to sit down in
small groups to look at how our liaison activities are going. With EGA we have
had many discussions on the telephone and this was our first opportunity to
sit down face to face to talk about how to work together. So we were not only
able to strength existing ties, but to begin to solidify new ones with groups
like EGA.
GGF11 was also a first experiment in offering other standards bodies the
opportunity to hold their own meetings, private or open, within the GGF venue.
We had some DMTF and OASIS groups who took advantage of this and this is a
program we have offered to others, including EGA, as well. GGF has several
deeply rooted strengths, such as forging consensus and building diverse
communities where commercial and academic participants work together. What you
are seeing with our interactions with other standards bodies is an application
of those strengths, and something we believe is a significant contribution we
can make to Grid standards.
Gt: Do you foresee these issues carrying over to the Brussels
meeting in September?
CATLETT: Absolutely. Brussels will build on both of these
themes. In Brussels, we have lined up speakers and panels to talk about
deployment of Grid technologies in support of the commercial enterprise --
beyond the research enterprise we spoke about here at GGF11. In addition, we
will expand on the use of GGF venues to host technical committees and working
groups from other standards organizations, increasing the opportunity for
cross-fertilization among participants. Of course, we are sensitive to the
need to provide venues that allow for private sessions under the various
intellectual property rules of each organization. The point is not so much to
try to combine multiple standards processes into one room, but to get people
walking the same halls and eating meals together.
WALTER STEWART: The plenary sessions of GGF12 will focus
on
Grids deployed. Those sessions will be divided among industry specific panels
-- telco, pharmaceutical, automotive, aerospace, finance -- and sessions on
Grid issues that touch all sectors -- ROI of Grids, marketing the Grid concept
within the enterprise, human resource issues of Grids, deployment experiences,
etc.
STEVE CRUMB: We really have multiple goals with the
September
meeting. As always, our first priority is the work of our technical groups,
workshops and tutorials. However, we are also building on the momentum started
at Gt'04 by providing a one and a half day plenary program geared at Grid
deployment in the commercial sector. We are bringing together deployment
veterans from multiple industries who can share the real benefits and
challenges of their Grid deployments. We believe this program will answer many
of the questions being asked by senior management about the relevance of Grids
in their organization.
Gt: You mentioned that an EGA member spoke at GGF11. How else
was the EGA involved?
CATLETT: Many of the EGA leaders are very strong and
active
in GGF. Our standards collaboration panel included Adrian Cockcroft from EGA,
who presented an overview of EGA. We've also got several companies represented
in our steering group and on our advisory committee who are active in EGA
committees, as well.
Gt: Well, that seems like a good sign of things to come.
Where do you see this relationship going?
CATLETT: I'd say that there is a very clear desire on the
part of GGF and EGA to work together, and we are talking about how we would
like that to happen. The details as to how we can do that are going to be more
clear to all of us as we continue our dialog. I think we will very rapidly
converge on some areas where we collaborate, and others where it makes sense
for us to rely on one another. I'd prefer to be concrete about that as we make
progress, so ask me again in Brussels.
STEWART: During GGF11, the GGF12 program committee met.
The
program committee includes several people active in EGA. Our EGA members have
agreed to review the program and come back to the full program committee next
week with a proposal on how the EGA can best be engaged in the GGF12
program.
Gt: On to another topic, if I may. Charlie, what will your
role be by September?
CATLETT: Well, in September, we will make the transition
to
the new GGF chair, and I'll be focusing my energies on the TeraGrid. In fact,
that transition has already begun and is moving quickly. I'll be involved in
the GGF Steering Committee as a resource to the new chair, but not in any of
the day to day activities.
Gt: Speaking of the new chair, how's the search going? Who
will bare the banner for GGF by then?
CATLETT: I wish I could say who the candidates are,
because
it's a very impressive list. I'm very pleased with the quality of the people
who are on the final short list -- there simply are no bad choices on this
list.
Gt: Well, fellows, it's been a pleasure. Before we go our
separate ways, does anyone have any final thoughts on the state of Grid and
Grid standards?
CRUMB: I'd like to add that another purpose of our meeting
was to allow the OGSA-WG to educate and bring the community up to speed on the
state of its framework for grids, Open Grid Services Architecture. During the
overview talk, the working group was pleased to announce the availability of
the OGSA Specification version 1.0. This draft will enter the GGF Editor
"pipeline" for review prior to a public comment period in late June through
early July. This marks a significant milestone for the OGSA-WG and for the
community.
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