New Science Gateways for Advanced Computing Simulations and Visualization Using Vine Toolkit in PL-Grid

A Science Gateway is a connection between scientists and their computational tools in the form of web portal. It creates a space for communities, collaboration and data sharing and visualization in a comprehensive and efficient manner. The main purpose of such a solution is to allow users to access the computational resources, process and analyze their data and get the results in a uniform and user friendly way. In this paper we propose a complex solution based on the Rich Internet Application (RIA) approach consisting of a web portal powered by Vine Toolkit with Adobe Flex/BlazeDs technologies. There are two Science Gateways described in detail one for engineers to manage computationally intensive workflows used in advanced airplane construction simulations, and one for nanotechnology scientists to manage experiments in nano-science field calculated with Density Functional Theory (DFT). In both cases the results show how modern web solution can help scientists in their work. &nbsp

Technology transfer of dynamic IT outsourcing requires security measures in SLAs

For the present efforts in dynamic IT outsourcing environments like Grid or Cloud computing security and trust are ongoing issues. SLAs are a proved remedy to build up trust in outsourcing relations. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether SLAs can improve trust from the perspective of the outsourcing customer by integration of security measures. The conducted survey indicates that customers see SLAs as an approach to increase their level of trust in IT outsourcing partners. In addition, security measures in SLAs are of high relevance to support trust but not yet integrated appropriately. However, SLAs are very important for the technology transfer of eScience projects in Grid computing. Again, Grid based outsourcing of biomedical IT services requires security measures in SLAs. Thus, the technology transfer process of dynamic IT outsourcing infrastructures requires adequate SLAs in order to be successful

SLA-BASED JOB SUBMISSION AND SCHEDULING WITH THE GLOBUS TOOLKIT 4

High performance computing is nowadays mostly performed in a best effortfashion. This is surprising as the closely related topic of grid computing, whichdeals with the federation of resources from multiple domains in order to supportlarge jobs, and cloud computing, which promises seemingly infinite amounts ofcompute and storage, both offer quality of service (QoS), albeit in different ways.Long-term service level agreements (SLAs), which require the establishment ofSLAs long in advance of their actual usage, seem a promising way for the offeringof QoS guarantees in an HPC environment in a way that is not disruptive to thebusiness models employed today. This work uses the long-term SLA approachas a basis for the provisioning of service levels for HPC resources and presentsan SLA management framework to support this. Flexibility is provided byproviding SLAs with different service levels, support for which is integratedinto job submission and scheduling. The SLA management framework can, ona high level, be used in a generic fashion and an implementation is presentedthat is evaluated against a motivating scenario

Economics-Aware Capacity Planning for Commercial Grids

Currently, capacity planning is fairly simple, due to the few options that are available. With the advent of Grid markets, this discipline for analyzing resource purchases must be adapted. A commercial Grid provides many different resource types at variable prices, making capacity planning more complicated than it currently is. In this paper, we describe the functionality of an online Grid Capacity Planning Service, which helps companies with little IT expertise to make use of the Grid in a cost-effective manner. The requirements of the capacity planning service are derived in part from a survey carried out among SMEs in the region of the German city of Bruchsal. Using the requirements, we identified all the necessary information from the Grid and we designed and implemented parts of the capacity planning service

Environment determinants in business adoption of Cloud Computing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions on Cloud Computing adoption. This research also considers Killer Applications and Success Cases as other environmental factors. Design/methodology/approach – Factorial analyses and structural equation models were used on a sample of high-technology firms located in technological parks in Southern Europe, with more than ten employees and sustained investments in R&D. Findings – Results show that Technology Providers and Success Cases are determinant in Cloud Computing adoption. Moreover, Killer Applications are a forerunner for Success Cases. Practical implications – An appropriate fit between the tools and resources provided by suppliers and the internal resources of the company is needed to create competitive advantages. Firms should evaluate Technology Providers, identify Success Cases to Cloud Computing adoption and implement technological benchmarking. Originality/value – This study contributes to Cloud Computing adoption literature because it includes Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions simultaneously as well as other variables as Killer Applications and Success Cases. The importance of the external agents on information technology (IT) adoption, especially when the technologies to be adopted are new and in an emergent stage, together with the lack of prior investigations focusing on specific environmental factors affecting the adoption of these new, emerging IT, justify the value of this research