In this interview with GRIDtoday, president and CEO of the newly formed Open Grid Forum Mark Linesch discusses what the Grid community can expect from the new organization -- from balancing between commercial and research, to getting end-users involved, to what will happen with each organization's conferences and meetings.

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GRIDtoday: Congratulations on completing the merger. How was the transition process? Did everything run smoothly with trying to combine two important, yet fundamentally different organizations?
 
MARK LINESCH: Thanks! The announcement is an important milestone in the merger process. The transition phase that we just completed provides a firm foundation upon which we can build.  

The fundamental differences between the organizations were identified early in our discussions and deemed a benefit of the merger. The EGA has a practical, commercial enterprise focus while the GGF has an open, collaborative community with a rich history of contributions in Grid research, best practices and standards. Together we are very complementary -- particularly if we embrace the energy and diversity of our members and channel it into focused priorities and results for our international community of Grid researchers, developers, educators, users and solution providers.  


Gt: What can we expect to see from the new Open Grid Forum? How does this merger affect the ongoing projects of the GGF and the EGA? How will the previous working groups, etc., from both organizations be folded into the new OGF?

LINESCH: You can expect us to spend the summer completing the merger integration and preparing our formal introduction at GridWorld/GGF18, Sept. 11-14 in Washington, D.C. We've kept the existing GGF and EGA leadership in place to help keep activities progressing during the integration phase and most, if not all, will continue their leadership service in the new organization. We will continue all technical work and anticipate little, if any, disruption to group activities.
 

Gt: I know the Board of Directors and leadership teams have yet to be finalized, but how do you foresee them shaping up? What kind of balance can we expect to see from commercial, vendor and research communities, for example?

LINESCH: Our intent is to strike the right balance and encourage representation and productive interactions throughout all levels of the new organization. All members are welcome to participate in the new organization, including leadership of groups and nominations to leadership positions such as area director, vice president and Board of Director.

Our desire is to draw in senior expertise from the commercial grid-user, grid-provider and independent software vendor communities, as well as the research establishment and national/international funding agencies to create the right mix of commercial, vendor and research representatives. I think we'll have a good balance at the operational leadership levels and within our advisory committee. Within the board, two-thirds of the seats will be occupied by organizational members nominated from our platinum tier and one-third will be nominated from the community at-large. Over time, our goal is to bring everyone to the table and give them an opportunity to influence our directions and priorities and be recognized for their contributions.
 

Gt: As an organization, how will the OGF look to balance commercial concerns with those of the research community?

LINESCH: Balance is clearly an important theme in serving the needs of our diverse community. The OGF will have dedicated functions that focus on the requirements of commercial enterprises, as well as research, scientific and education communities. These functions will help influence and complement our standards efforts -- enabling a focus on the unique needs of each community, while bringing all of the communities together to share ideas and develop open standards for software interoperability. We will also have a regional function within OGF to more effectively represent out global community and ensure that our international partners can influence our directions and priorities.


Gt: What are the plans for getting the end-user community involved with the OGF, and what kind of effect do you think the new organization will have in getting users from all areas to adopt Grid technologies?

LINESCH: Getting end-user communities involved with the OGF is a priority. We will actively pursue participation of end-user organizations as sponsors, contributors to our group activities, advisors in our advisory committee, and as nominees for leadership positions throughout the organization. GridWorld/GGF18 should give us a great opportunity to engage end users, validate the ideas and plans we are developing and begin to put appropriate outreach programs in place.  
 

Gt: How will the OGF address related technologies such as virtualization and service-oriented IT? What about the increasingly popular idea of cyber infrastructure?

LINESCH: As I have indicated previously, I believe that the industry is on a journey toward a new world of distributed computing. The technologies you mentioned are "fellow travelers" on this journey. Grids are enabled by virtualization, automation and service-orientation technologies; they also integrate these technologies into a solution -- particularly across functional and organizational boundaries. But technology is only part of the issue; there are also significant people, process and policy implications to address. The concept of cyberinfrastructure suggests that we need to take a holistic approach when utilizing grids and next-generation distributed computing technologies to enable scientific discovery and innovation across organizational and geographic boundaries. This holistic approach must move beyond technology and incorporate the role of education and public policy in the discussion.
 

Gt: What does this merger mean from an event perspective? What will happen, for example, to the GGF meetings and the EGA User Forums?

LINESCH: The OGF is finalizing our event schedule for 2007. We will continue to bring our international community together in an open forum to share ideas, workshop solutions, develop standards and accelerate commercial adoption. We would also like to institute smaller, more focused events to engage a particular community or theme -- for instance, an Enterprise End User Forum or a Research Forum. There is quite a lot we can learn from the EGA User Forums.
 

Gt: What will the Grid community see from the OGF at the upcoming GridWorld, which is only a few months away?

LINESCH: At GridWorld, the Grid community will be introduced to the new Open Grid Forum including our newly appointed board members, operational leadership team, organizational structure, directions and priorities. Participants will also have access to great program lineup during the four-day event, including sessions on grid solutions, technologies and standards for enterprise IT professionals and the Globus and OGF communities. For more information or to register go to www.ogf.org   


Gt: What kind of feedback have you received from the global Grid community since announcing the plan to merge earlier this year? Most everyone with whom I spoke about it was optimistic, but were there any areas of concern?

LINESCH: We have received great support and encouragement from the global Grid community since announcing our plans to merge. The merger provides the opportunity to bring everyone together to focus on grid adoption and practical results. Regarding "concerns," I think there are the obvious issues associated with bringing two cultures together and the uncertainties surrounding the startup of any new organization -- all of which we are quite confident we can overcome.
 

Gt: There has been some concern over the pace of standards adoption. What can we expect to see on this front?

LINESCH: From my perspective, the entire industry has a role in creating a clearer sense of direction and urgency in accelerating standards adoption. OGF must focus our standardization efforts and clearly articulate practical, near term priorities. We must communicate more clearly and collaborate more effectively while obtaining active participation from key industry experts. The broader distributed computing community must continue to make progress on the foundational Web services standards upon which our specifications are based. The vendor and open source community must productively engage in the open standards process and adopt the specifications that enable software interoperability. Finally, end users need to encourage vendors to deliver software based on industry standards.


Gt: One area of concern for enterprise adoption of Grid computing seems to be some confusion over what Grid actually is or is not. How will the OGF address the confusion over the definition of Grid computing, especially considering the focuses of the GGF and EGA, where one focused mainly on a distributed, global version of Grid computing, and the other focused on Grid from a single data center perspective?

LINESCH: I think it is quite natural in the maturation of Grid and next-generation distributed computing technologies for the industry to still be "storming, forming and norming" on the names, definitions and boundaries of these concepts. Grid architectures, technologies and solutions have demonstrated real scientific and business value when implemented within a single data center, across multiple data centers and across multiple organizations. OGF will focus on the value and add our voice to reducing confusion but this is an industry-wide issue.

Regarding the scope of grid implementations -- from "two nano-seconds beyond a cluster" to the global Grid, I would again suggest that we focus on the value, not the hype. I don't think anyone believes that we should only implement Grid technology within the four walls of the enterprise nor believes that a "global Grid" will suddenly appear. Grids are built a grid at a time and connected to other grids both within and between organizations. They need to be based on a software architecture that allows for incremental growth, scalability and interoperability.  I like to tell CIOs that grids are a core part of the next stage of distributed computing. It's important that they look for specific problems that they might solve today, then start small. Let the infectious nature of grids lead to additional applications and solutions.


Gt: Finally, what will the formation of the OGF mean for the overall Grid community?

LINESCH: I think the formation of the OGF marks another milestone in our journey together. I am excited about our potential and encouraged by the support the community has demonstrated. Together we have a great opportunity to deliver results and accelerate adoption.
 

Gt: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

LINESCH: I would like to thank the leadership of both the EGA and the GGF for their support and encouragement through this process. I also want to highlight the special contributions of Steve Crumb, Jay Unger, Marcie Hatch, Tony DiCenzo, Paul Ritchie and John Ehrig for their tireless efforts on behalf of this merger. While contributions were made by many GGF and EGA members, these individuals went "the extra mile" and their hard work and extra efforts should be recognized by the entire Grid community.