Access Grid and USAID November 14, 2007 Presentation and Discussion of the use of Access Grid Computing to support USAID knowledge management objectives Dr. Rose Hessmiller, Ferguson Lynch Joseph Orona, Sandia National Laboratory/ Retis Technologies

Working not Talking The Internet is about getting computers to talk together Grid computing is about getting computers to work together

Access Grid Origins The Access Grid Toolkit was developed inside the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory

Open Source Access Grid 2006 Open Grid Services Infrastructure (OGSI), became a new technical standard developed within the Global Grid Forum Grid computing moved beyond the laboratories of academia and research and through the doors of commercial enterprises.

What's Access GRID Computing? Grid computing provides the ability to perform higher throughput computing (performance speed and response time) by taking advantage of many networked computers.

Access Grid Computing equates to the world's largest computer ... Thought of as a massively large power "utility" grid, such as what provides power to our homes and businesses each and every day. This delivery of utility-based power has become second nature to many of us, worldwide. We know that by simply walking into a room and turning on the lights, the power will be directed to the proper devices of our choice for that moment in time.

Access Grid Technology Each “node” in the grid may be able to display a dozen or more real-time images of other users, documents, web sites and other useful data.

Real Time Collaboration Enables development of programs to share video, audio, data and text for real-time collaboration between people at different locations around the world.

Shared Content Local Autonomy Industry-standard Web services provide powerful interfaces that facilitate sharing of resources such as computers, instrumentation, data, storage and networks. People can share computing power, databases and other tools securely online across corporate, institutional and geographic boundaries without sacrificing local autonomy.

Access Grid: IT efficiency Coordinates resources that are not subject to centralized control. Uses standard, open, general-purpose protocols and interfaces. Delivers nontrivial qualities of service. Better synchronization between IT and the underlying hardware and software resources. New era of efficiency in managing IT resources. . A grid addresses the issues of security, policy, payment membership, and so forth that arise in these settings. A grid should be transparent to the end user, addressing issues of response time, throughput, availability, security, and/or co-allocation of multiple resource types to meet complex user demands. The goal is that the utility of the combined system is significantly greater than that of the sum of its parts. In this new wave of innovation, we are starting to see IT more effectively manage its own resources -- and in the process, lead business to this world of "adaptive enterprise." Historically, IT organizations have had to overbuy resources -- planning for peak requirements and worst case scenarios. In the past there was no ability to turn the dial up and down on resources as users required them. Nor had there been a means for transitioning of resources as they dynamically changed state

Access Grid Architecture Supports wall-size display technology, detailed visualizations of simulations, and a streamlined user interface and other improvements. Since released it has been downloaded more than 20,000 times in 56 countries. Written in the Python programming language and features robust middleware easier for software developers to write applications to run on Access Grid Uses some of the most common Internet protocols, including Secure Sockets Layer for security, FTP for data transfer, the Jabber instant-messaging platform and XML for describing data.

Promising Trends Cost-effective use of a given amount of computer resources, Solve problems that can't be approached without enormous computing power Harness resources of many computers cooperatively toward a common objective. Lead to pervasive computing applications - in our environment Wearable computers, smart homes

Access Grid and SARS SARS Grid linked several hospitals and the island’s Center of Disease Control to enable them to pool medical resources and share x-ray information in real time without risking the doctors’ health. Taiwan’s National Center for High-Performance Computing.

Access Grid and NIH National Institutes of Health research program on allergies and infectious diseases Participants can collaborate from any of 10 regional research centers and eight to 10 universities around the country using an Access Grid.

Access Grid and Bioinformatics Genomics and Bioinformatics (VCGB) Attendees to VCGB virtual conference gather at local nodes linked together using an Access Grid

Access Grid and Earth Observation European Community (EU) Sponsoring a project for an Access Grid for high-energy physics, earth observation, and biology applications.