F&L-Grid

Keywords: Grid Computing, Service Oriented Computing, Backup, Archiving

The goal of the F&L-Grid project is building a generic service-oriented Grid by which IT services are offered via the DFN network (a high-speed network connecting German research institutes and universities). The services offered by the DFN are complemented by implementations of T-Systems SfR, the University of Karlsruhe, and the University of Marburg.

Nowadays, local computing centers manage the IT services of universities and research institutes. Only a few exceptions exist where bilateral or multilateral cooperations between universities exist or where services are actually bought from external service providers. The different cooperation partners have agreed on proprietary interfaces, but standards available in the Grid area have been completely ignored.

As soon as the access to the IT services has been standardized, many customers will be able to use the services, so outsourcing of IT services will be economically attractive. Particularly, backup and archive services are of great interest. In the long run, big computing centers as well as smaller computing centers will be able to offer Grid-based services for internal and external customers. IT services of external software developers will be integrated as seamlessly as possible. The backup and archiving services will be based upon the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.

Contact: Markus Mathes, Matthew Smith, Steffen Heinzl