1. 1 Joining the NGS Stephen Pickles Technical Director, GOSC stephen.pickles@manchester.ac.uk GOSC face-to-face meeting, NeSC, 28/10/2004

2. 2 Joining the NGS What does it mean to join the NGS? What are the benefits to prospective partners? Some common concerns, and NGS position

3. 3 Assumptions NGS brand is valuable NGS compatibility is valuable NGS integration is valuable We must make it so!

4. 4 Membership of NGS NGS-Baseline document distinguishes (initially) between two levels of membership, affiliation and partnership: 1.Affiliation a.k.a. connect to NGS 2.Partnership

5. 5 Affiliation Affiliates commit to: running NGS-compatible middleware –as defined in NGS Minimum Software Stack –this means users of affiliate’s resources can access these using same client tools they use to access NGS a well-defined level of service and problem referral mechanisms –SLD approved by NGS Management Board and published on NGS web-site providing technical, administrative, and security (CERT) contacts providing an account and mapping for daily compliance tests (GITS++) accept UK e-Science certificates maintain baseline of logs (gatekeeper, batch system) to assist problem resolution

6. 6 Partnership Partners commit to same as affiliates, plus: making significant resources available to NGS users –creation of accounts/mappings –in future, VO support, pool accounts, etc recognise additional CAs with which UK e-Science programme has reciprocal agreements publish/provide additional information to support resource discovery, brokering –BDII (MDS), populating GLUE schema –job level accounting –additional monitoring: load, availability compilation environment on computational resources

7. 7 Benefits Affiliation: NGS brand –certified NGS-compatible better integrated support for local users who also access NGS facilities assistance/advice in maintaining NGS-compatibility over time Partnership: higher brand quality representation on NGS management board –either direct, or through regional or functional consortia

8. 8 FAQ Q. Why should I join? A.See benefits Q. So I’m compatible today. How do I maintain compatibility over time without unreasonable effort? A. (The short answer). NGS appreciates and shares this concern, and is committed to providing leadership.

9. 9 The long answer Operating a production grid means valuing robustness and reliability over fashion. NGS cares about: –alignment/compatibility with leading international Grid efforts, especially EGEE, TeraGrid,... –special requirements of UK e-Science community –easy migration/upgrade paths –proven robustness/reliability –based on standards or standards-track specifications NGS cannot support everything –c.f. TeraGrid’s rule of one Everyone wants service-oriented grids –but still settling out: WS-I, WS-I+, OGSI, WSRF, GT3, GT4, gLite Significant changes to NGS Minimum Software Stack will require approval by NGS Management Board –on conservative time scales

10. 10 Questions?