Holding slide prior to starting show

The Grid : Infrastructure and Opportunities Alex Hardisty Grid Centre Manager

What is the Grid? Visions of Internet Computing: –Grid computing –Utility computing –IP dial tone –Pervasive or ubiquitous computing Much more than just a faster Internet –An emerging communication and computing infrastructure … …for transparent sharing of distributed computing resources

Why Do We Need It? e-Science –“science increasingly done through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet, using very large data collections, tera-scale computing resources and high performance visualization.”

Collaborative Scientific Experiments Physicists collaborating in an international experiment need to share: –Experimental data and storage resources –Computers and software for extracting information from this data –Computers and software for large-scale computer simulations Large Hadron Collider (CERN): raw data rate = 1 Petabyte/sec Filtered rate= 100Mbyte/sec (1 Petabyte/year) = 1 Million CD ROMs ( ~200m 3 !)

Engineering Design Collaborating organisations need to share: –Digital blueprints of the design –Supercomputers for performing multi- disciplinary simulations –Software and data for performing those simulations A new aircraft may involve 10,000 collaborating engineers

Crisis Management A crisis management team might be drawn from government, the emergency and health services, and academia. Need to share: –Information on the individuals who have caught the disease –Information on the resources available to tackle the infection –Epidemiological simulations to predict spread of the infection under different assumptions Bioterrorism - control and eradicate a virulent strain of disease

“Post-Genomic” Bioinformatics Increasing size, complexity and diversity of databases of biological information –Linkage and optimal exploitation Filtering results of micro-array experiments –30 or 40 results out of 1 million Simulation of large molecules –Protein folding affects how drugs dock with receptors Wales Gene Park

Elements in Common Coordinated problem solving –Beyond client-server: distributed data analysis, computation, collaboration, … –… Problem Solving Environments Resource sharing –Computers, data, instruments, networks Multi-institutional “virtual organisations” –Overlying traditional organisational structures –Large or small, static or dynamic

The Grid Vision Where this power is made available as "services" to users with differing levels of expertise Where "services" interact to perform specified tasks with a minimum of human intervention Imagine a world in which computing power is as readily available as electrical power …..

Why is the Grid important? Gives access to more computing power Makes more computing and data resources more readily available Permits collaborative working and resource sharing through virtual organisations and communities Creates new economic resources, products and services

Benefits from the Grid Lower cost of computing Increased flexibility –to tackle large-scale problems Empowers individuals and organisations –towards better collaboration within and between organisations Will enhance economic competitiveness, security and quality of life –engine for transformation in our personal lives, our work, and our society

UK e-Science Programme Spending Reviews –2000 : £98m for 3 years (+ £20m from DTI) –2002 : Further £115m for years 4 & 5 Development of key IT infrastructure to support e-Science Managed by Research Councils & DTI –Application specific Pilot Projects –Core programme to identify, develop and deploy generic Grid middleware

UK e-Science Network RAL  National Centre in Edinburgh/Glasgow  8 regional centres  Grid support centre Cambridge Newcastle Edinburgh Glasgow Cardiff Southampton Belfast Oxford London Hinxton (EBI) Manchester DL

Welsh e-Science Centre Based at Cardiff University –Department of Computer Science –Funded by DTI, WDA and CU Role: –Promote e-Science research and development in Wales and South-west of England –Accelerate the adoption of e-Science & Grid capabilities

Our Role in Practice Provision of infrastructure Development of the technology Outreach to encourage: –Use of e-Science technologies by researchers –Collaborative research projects –Technology transfer to industry

Resources “Monster Computing Power” –Locally: SUN, SGI, storage, visualisation –Resources of the “national grid” ! –Access via Broadband Grid expertise for training and support –Full-time staff (4) –Related Researchers (~20)

Industry Collaborators Activeplan Solutions Avantis World BAE Systems BTexact Evotec HP SEA Group SGI Discussions –Amersham Biosciences –BBC Nations & Regions –Clearspeed Technology –IBM –MIT Media Lab Europe

Projects Collaborative virtual teams Resource-aware visualisation environment Visual workflow composition environment Workflow execution engine and resource management Agents negotiating to form consortia Mechanisms for trusted Grid services

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? e-Health –electronic patient records, distributed and/or remote diagnosis, collaborative surgical planning e-Business –streamline, distribute, and enhance business processes e-Commerce –marketplace for both traditional and innovative goods and services e-Learning –remove barriers to education and training

Governance and Democracy e-Democracy –involve citizens in the democratic processes of the nation e-Government –transform relations between government and citizens, businesses, and other arms of government –better delivery of government services –empowerment through access to information Based on people’s needs, not bureaucratic needs

Concluding Remarks The vision of the Grid and e-Science is ambitious and far-reaching The Grid is an engine for economic progress and social change driven by a confluence of technologies This is the start of the Grid era. It’s a long term programme