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NEW GGF CHAIR LINESCH SPEAKS
By Tom Tabor, Publisher

At the upcoming Global Grid Forum (GGF) meeting Sept. 20-23 in Brussels, Belgium, the organization will formally introduce its newly-appointed chairman, Mark Linesch. He will replace Charlie Catlett, who will hand over the reins after five years of tireless service.

GRIDtoday publisher Tom Tabor recently caught up with Linesch and took the opportunity to find out more about the man behind the title -- why he is the right man for the job, why he wanted the job, and his vision for the GGF -- as well as his views on working with other standards bodies and the increasing role of industry concerns in the world of Grid computing.

GRIDtoday: If it's alright, I'd like to start with a little background information. What was the process that led you to become the new chair of GGF? Why do you think you are the best person for the job?

MARK LINESCH: GGF began the search process for a new GGF chair in March 2004 when Charlie Catlett announced his intention to step down at GGF12 in Brussels after five years as GGF chair. A search subcommittee was formed and they considered over 20 nominees, interviewing many of them and selecting a short list of final candidates. Extensive interviews with the finalists were completed by the Grid Forum's Steering Group and Advisory Council members who were then asked to submit his or her first, second, and third choices for the GGF chair. I was selected by what they tell me is a large majority from an excellent set of finalists for the position.

Regarding why I am a good choice for the GGF chair position, I have several thoughts. With over 20 years experience in the computing industry I have quite a bit of relevant experience -- most recently as vice president for HP's Adaptive Enterprise Program, where I worked extensively on Grid and next-generation distributed computing architectures and solutions. I am also someone who is results-oriented and understands how to develop strategy, prioritize work and collaborate across different communities of interest to enable a vision and/or reach milestones.

As the new GGF chair, I feel I have a clear mandate to work for the entire grid community and leverage expertise, balance needs and articulate priorities while encouraging everyone to keep their eyes on the prize -- pervasive, standards-based, Grid computing.

Gt: Why did you want this job?

LINESCH: First, I enjoy working with smart, passionate people who want to make a difference. Second, throughout my career, I have been drawn to start-up situations, emerging technologies and markets. Finally, I have a great appreciation for the opportunity before us given my experiences in technical workstations; Internet and eCommerce solutions and most recently helping to lead HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy. Great community of people; exciting, worthwhile mission; and an opportunity to make a difference -- sounds like an exciting job to me.

Gt: Alright. On to GGF business, what do you see as the primary role for GGF, and how will this evolve over the next few years?

LINESCH: I think the success of the Global Grid Forum in the first five years has been extraordinary. The GGF community has crystallized a very compelling vision; developed critical architectural specifications to enable this vision; and aligned with emerging Web services standards to encourage broad industry adoption. We have grown from a small group of primarily academic researchers to become the preeminent Grid standards body today, with participation from over 30 countries and 500 organizations worldwide

During the next phase of community development and growth, GGF will continue to provide architectural leadership and standards development based on the demanding workloads of research and industry. We will see a growing industry participation and commercialization of Grid technologies. GGF will also be collaborating with other standards organizations as Grid workloads, architectures and technologies move more mainstream -- something I refer to as industry standard distributed computing (aka the Grid).

Gt: Thanks for the smooth transition into my next question, which is: What do you see as the importance of working with other standards organizations and Grid consortia, e.g. W3C, DMTF, OASIS, EGA, etc.?

LINESCH: We have a great opportunity to make significant progress on Grid computing over the next few years. This is going to require significant work and collaboration across the communities of interest that represent GGF -- research, industry, international, government and individuals. The magnitude and scope of the work is greater than any one organization can accomplish alone and related work is already being carried out in other standards bodies. So it just makes sense to leverage the great work being done and collaborate wherever possible.

Gt: Since collaboration is necessary, and the GGF doesn't have to go it alone, what are the top three goals for the GGF?

LINESCH: As chairman of the GGF, I would hope to build on the success of the founding members while increasing collaboration with the research, industry and standards communities. This will require a balanced approach: continuing to evolve the vision; driving consensus on priorities; and adapting to the practical realities of industry so that the architectural concepts and standards can be broadly adopted and commercialized.

I start the job with a tremendous advantage -- a strong community of active members that includes international leaders from throughout the Grid community. Having just stepped in as the new GGF chair, I do not have all the answers -- answers are the work of the chair interacting with the GGF steering and advisory committees, members and the industry at large. Together, we must work across the communities of interest to leverage expertise, balance needs and articulate priorities while encouraging everyone to keep their eyes on the prize.

Gt: What about OGSA? What is the plan for promoting and accelerating OGSA adoption worldwide?

LINESCH: Our flagship architecture, OGSA, has emerged from the work of individuals from over 60 companies and as many research organizations -- experts working shoulder-to-shoulder with commercial product designers and developers. OGSA v1.0 is a great piece of work and the team has already begun working on plans for OGSA 2.0.

GGF is taking a two-phased approach to the broad acceptance of OGSA as the premier architecture for Grid computing. First, GGF is educating the community by releasing OGSA v.1.0 as an informational document that provides an overview of the service categories required for Grid deployment. A companion document on OGSA Use Cases is also available. Use Cases drive the definition and prioritization of OGSA services and help to document the rationale for architectural choices. OGSA v1.0 will be followed by OGSA v2.0, which will be a proposed recommendation (standard).

Second, GGF is engaged in a coordinated effort with other standards organizations to insure that Grid requirements and specifications are broadly adopted, and that the work we do in GGF is well grounded in context with related work. While OGSA was born in GGF and will remain one primary focus of what GGF does in the future, its reach encompasses Web services, data management, network protocols and a number of activities that are being driven by other standards bodies. Over the coming months your readers will be hearing more about a coordinated effort to make OGSA a key component for distributed computing.

Gt: You mentioned the importance of the GGF working with other standards bodies, so what do you see as the unique roles of academic/research and industry, and how do you see them working together?

LINESCH: My perspective is that research and industry are sometimes different in their goals, requirements, incentives and measurements. I also hold the belief that this diversity can be a great source of strength -- particularly when aligned around the right vision.

The scientific research community has provided the leadership and forms the "bedrock" or "foundation" for Grid computing with many of the most demanding Grid-related problems and a rich history of community collaboration. The full promise of Grid computing cannot be realized until commercial organizations implement the standards and best practices and make them available in the marketplace.

I believe that to enable this vision will require the energies and talents of everyone -- large and small, business and research, individuals and institutions. My clear mandate is to work for the entire Grid community and leverage expertise, balance needs and articulate priorities while encouraging everyone to keep their eyes on the prize -- pervasive, standards-based, Grid computing.

Gt: What role do you think that enterprise requirements should play in steering GGF's future direction?

LINESCH: Industry will play a critical role in our next phase of development and commercialization. CIOs around the world are providing new value to their enterprise organizations by enabling better interaction with customers, suppliers and partners -- establishing virtual organizations for informational sharing, collaboration and commerce. These same CIOs are also challenged to reduce the costs of data center operations through better resource utilization and increased automation. Industry standard Grid technologies and products will be critical enablers for industry collaboration while at the same time providing flexible, cost-efficient solutions for distributed resource utilization and management. Working with industry to understand key requirements and partnering to commercialize Grid technologies will be a key focus for GGF in the coming years.

Gt: What are your thoughts on the newly formed Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA)?

LINESCH: Enterprise-oriented requirements have been and will continue to be a key focus for the GGF community. EGA represents a potential collaboration partner to help us better understand and refine enterprise requirements. I am hopeful that they can help contribute to the architectural work of OGSA and help us accelerate efforts toward standardization and pervasive industry adoption.

Gt: With all this talk of standards bodies, industry/academic requirements, etc., where do you see GGF in the overall leadership of the worldwide Grid effort at large?

LINESCH: Clearly, the global Grid effort represents a great opportunity to collaborate across virtual organizations, solve hard research problems and make significant progress on industry standard distributed computing. As a worldwide community-based forum, GGF has a shared vision and is a rich source of Grid-related problems, workloads, and best practices for research and industry. Our members utilize this vision and practical experience to develop the architectures, specifications and standards needed to support real deployments today and lay the foundation for pervasive adoption in the future. The magnitude and scope of the work is greater than any one organization. To paraphrase a famous politician, "it takes a village to raise a global Grid." GGF is committed to continuing to provide thought leadership through a collaborative approach with research, industry and standards bodies worldwide. Together, we need to ensure that we are leveraging all the talents and energies of the Grid communities in pursuit of our goals.

Gt: Finally, Mark, considering how dynamic the field of Grid computing is, what is your expectation of how GGF membership demographics might shift over the next few years, especially in terms of presence of end-users, IT managers, CxOs, vendors, developers, academics, research, industry, etc.? Why?

LINESCH: As a community-based organization, GGF is open to anyone interested in helping to promote and support the development, deployment and implementation of Grid architectures and standards worldwide. As Grid computing becomes more standard, commercialized and pervasive, I think we will see more participation from research and increasing involvement from industry. This will come in several ways. First, individuals and end user organizations will tap into our community for the rich understanding of Grid workloads and the best practices associated with development, deployment and management of Grids. Second, organizations concerned with the wide spread adoption and commercialization of Grid technologies will utilize our architectures, specifications and standards to build products.

Linesch certainly appears up to the task of leading the GGF into the next generations of Grid computing, especially if he can maintain the level of diplomacy among the numerous consortia working on Grid standards. In addition, his time working on HP's Adaptive Enterprise initiative should help ease the transition of industry concerns into the GGF arena, which, with the formation of the EGA, has become a hot topic over the last several months.

Will he be the leader GGF hoped for upon his appointment? Will he be able to fill the rather large shoes left by Catlett? All signs point to "Yes," but the Grid community will find out for sure as we finish up the year and roll into '05.