Menu:


Outline of the tutorial of Dr. Rajkumar Buyya

Title: Utility-Oriented Grid Computing and the Gridbus Middleware
Subtitle: Building and Managing Utility Grids for Powering e-Science and e-Business Applications

Abstract and Outline:
Grid computing, one of the latest buzzwords in the ICT industry, is emerging as a new paradigm for Internet-based parallel and distributing computing. It enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of geographically distributed autonomous resources, such as computers (PCs, servers, clusters, supercomputers), databases, and scientific instruments, for solving large-scale problems in science, engineering, and commerce. It leverages existing IT infrastructure to optimize compute resources and manage data and computing workloads. The developers of Grids and Grid applications need to address numerous challenges: security, heterogeneity, dynamicity, scalability, reliability, service creation and pricing, resource discovery, resource management, application dAbsecomposition and service composition, and qualify of services. A number of projects around the world are developing technologies that help address one or more of these challenges. To address some of these challenges, the Gridbus Project at the University of Melbourne has developed grid middleware technologies that (1) enable the creation of Utility Grids, which provide economic incentive for Grid service providers for sharing resources; and (2) support rapid development and optimal deployment of eScience and eBusiness applications on enterprise and global Grids. The components of Gridbus middleware are: Grid application development environment for rapid creation of distributed applications, Grid service broker and application scheduler, Grid workflow management engine, SLA (service-level agreements) based Scheduler for clusters, Web-services based Grid market directory (GMD), Grid accounting services, Gridscape for creation of dynamic and interactive resource monitoring portals, Portlets for creation of Grid portals that support web-based management of Grid applications execution, and GridSim toolkit for performance evaluation. In addition, Gridbus also includes a widely used .NET-based enterprise Grid technology and Grid web services framework to support the integration of both Windows and Unix-class resources for Grid computing.

The tutorial covers the following topics:

1. Fundamental principles of grid computing and emerging technologies that help in creation of Grid infrastructure and applications.
2. A Review of major international efforts in developing Grid software systems and applications both in academic, research and commercial settings.
3. Service-Oriented Grid Architecture for realising utility computing environment that supports resource sharing in research and commercial environments. Realization of this architecture by leveraging standard computing technologies (such as Web Services) and building new services that are essential for constructing industrial-strength Grid engines.
4. Gridbus middleware and technologies for creating enterprise and global utility Grids.
5. Issues in setting up Grids that can scale from enterprise to global and deploying applications on them.
6. Case studies on the use of Gridbus technologies in creating applications in the area of Drug Discovery, Neuroscience, High Energy Physics, Kidney Modelling, and Investment Risk Analysis.
7. Live demonstration of Gridbus technologies and their use in creating and deploying sample applications on the World Wide Grid (WWG).
8. Sociological and industrial implications of this new Internet-based distributed computing paradigm and its impact on the marketplace.

The tutorial places special emphasis on concepts of Grid economy, how to design and develop Grid technologies and applications capable of dynamically leasing services of distributed resources at runtime depending on their availability, capability, performance, cost, and users' quality of service requirements.