EXPANDING THE COMPUTATIONAL GRID FRONTIER


The Globus Toolkit--an open-source library of gridding middleware and software used to integrate geographically distributed computing systems--is the de facto standard for building grids.

IBM promotes Globus as its standard open source grid platform. Several prominent companies also rely on Globus-related applications, e.g., Intel for internal grids and Cisco for network management. The National Cancer Institute's $100-million Globus-based cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid program engages companies at multiple levels.

Globus' indirect impacts are also significant. Virtually every major computer vendor has a "grid product," and most of the Fortune 500 have a "grid strategy." All are influenced by the work on Globus even if they do not use Globus software directly. Globus development is in part supported by NSF.

Scientists in the Earth System Grid--who use Globus software for security, data movement and system monitoring--are providing access to climate data. This image shows sea ice extent (white/gray), sea ice motion, sea surface temperatures (colors) and atmospheric sea level pressure (contours). Credit: UCAR.

Nature's Super-Glue [Next]