EGEE is proposed as a project funded by the European Union under contract IST-2003-508833

EGEE is proposed as a project funded by the European Union under contract IST-2003-508833

The EGEE International Grid Infrastructure and the Digital Divide

Fabrizio Gagliardi

EGEE designated Project Director

Digital Divide and HEP Workshop - Rio de Janeiro - 16/2/2004 - 2

Background (I)

• Networking, commodity computing and distributed software tools became ripe for Grid technology to start become available at the end of the 90’s

• Many public funded projects (in the US and in the EU) launched since

• Grid computing a key activity of the EU programmes

• Industrial and commercial Grids have been following (see a good sample on the www.cern.ch/gridcafe portal and also www.gridstart.org)

• Major IT vendors involved in Grid activity


Background (II)

• These fruits of the “Information Age” are often out of reach for many in both developed and developing nations

• This gap, the "digital divide", threatens to cut off a large fraction of the people from the best jobs and the best opportunities

• Can the Grid help out?


Background: DataGrid, a prototype (I)

• 9.8 M Euros EU funding over 3 years (twice as much from partners)

• 90% for middleware and applications (High Energy Physics, Earth Observation, Genomic Exploration)

• Total of 21 partners, over 150 scientists, engineers and programmers from research and academic institutes as well as industrial companies

• Three year phased developments & demos (2001-2003)

• Several improved versions of middleware software (final release end 2003)

• Several components of software integrated in the large Particle Physics Production LHC Computing Project (LCG)

• Software used by partner projects: DataTAG, CROSSGRID, GRACE


Background: DataGrid, a prototype(II)

• DataGrid testbed: more than 1000 CPUs at more than 15 sites (up to 40)

• Connections made possible by the EU-funded GEANT project

• connecting more than 30 countries across Europe

• speeds of up to 10 Gbit/s

• high data throughput

• quality of Service


Background: International Grid Projects


Why EGEE ? (practical)

• Current Grid R&D projects run to completion within the next few months or next year

• The EGEE partners have already made major progress in aligning national and regional Grid R&D efforts, in preparation for EGEE

• EGEE will preserve the current strong momentum of the European Grid community, and the enthusiasm of the hundreds of young European researchers already involved in EU Grid projects (>150 in EDG alone)


Why EGEE? (in the DD contest)

• A European-wide grid infrastructure will help provide easier access to data and computing intensive science for:• smaller research groups in less favoured locations• new emerging sciences• remote and still developing

countries• Benefits from EGEE: new

opportunities for large virtual community building, easier access to global markets, new entrepreneurships, better access to higher education,…


EGEE manifesto:Enabling Grids for E-science in Europe

• Goal• Create a wide European Grid production quality infrastructure on top of present and future EU RN infrastructure

• Build on•EU and EU member states major investments• in Grid Technology•International connections (US and AP)• Several pioneering prototype results• Larg Grid development teams in EU• Requires major EU funding effort

• Approach• Leverage current and planned national and regional Grid programmes

• Work closely with relevant industrial Grid developers, NRENs and US-AP projects

Applications

EU RN Geant network

Grid infrastructure


EGEE benefits (I)

• Benefits for several scientific application fields:•Medical/Healthcare (imaging, diagnosis and treatment )

•Bioinformatics (study of the human genome and proteome to understand genetic diseases)

•Engineering (design optimization, simulation, failure analysis and remote Instrument access and control)

•Natural Resources and the Environment (weather forecasting, earth observation, modeling and prediction of complex systems)


EGEE benefits (II)

• Benefits for different people:

•Scientists:

•Collaborations at different scale (large scale multi-institutional projects + small research groups in remote countries)

•Corporations (global enterprises, industrial partnership,..)

•Young people (proficiency in technology, critical thinking and teamwork)

•Teachers (virtual learning rooms and laboratories, digital libraries)


EGEE partners

• 70 leading institutions in 27 countries, federated in regional Grids

• Federations will help integrate existing national and regional grid activities


EGEE Activities

JRA1: Middleware Engineering and Integration

JRA2: Quality Assurance

JRA3: Security

JRA4: Network Services Development

SA1: Grid Operations, Support and Management

SA2: Network Resource Provision

NA1: Management

NA2: Dissemination and Outreach

NA3: User Training and Education

NA4: Application Identification and Support

NA5: Policy and International Cooperation

24% Joint Research 28% Networking

48% ServicesEmphasis in EGEE is on operating a productiongrid and supporting the end-users


EGEE Networking Activity

• EGEE Scope : ALL-Inclusive for academic applications

• Open to industrial and socio-economic world as well

• The major success criterion of EGEE: how many satisfied users from how many different domains ?

• 5000 users (3000 after year 2) from at least 5 disciplines

• 2 Pilot Application Domains: Physics & Bioinformatics


The pilot applications

• Important to have already committed and dedicated user communities:

•HEP with LCG (www.cern.ch/lcg) major source of resources, requirements and a real problem with not conventional solution available

•Biomedical applications with need to access large and distributed non homogeneous data and important on demand computing requirements

•Other significant applications will follow (selected and supported by the NA4 activity)


EGEE “Virtuous Cycle”

A new scientific community makes first contacts to EGEE through outreach events organized by Networking Activities

Follow-up meetings by applications specialists may lead to definition of new requirements for the infrastructure

If approved, the requirements are implemented by the Middleware Activities

After integration and testing, the new middleware is deployed by the Service Activities

The Networking Activities then provide appropriate training to the community in question, so that it becomes an established user

Peer communication and dissemination events featuring established users then attract new communities


EGEE and Industry (I)

• Industry will benefit from EGEE in several ways:

• as partner

through collaboration with individual EGEE partners, participate in specific activities where relevant skills and manpower are available increase know-how on Grid technologies

• as user

specific industrial sectors will be targeted as potential users of the Grid infrastructure for R&D applications

particularly attractive to high-tech SMEs (major computing resources within grasp)

• as provider

long-term maintenance of established Grid services (call centres, support centres and computing resource provider centres)


EGEE and Industry (II)

• Long term implications:• EGEE will need solutions to issues such as scalability and security (beyond

current Grid R&D projects) spin off of innovative IT technologies with benefits for industry,

commerce and society

• Services developed in first EGEE 2 years phase (2004-5) might be tendered to Industry in second phase (2006-7)

• How to get in contact:• via the Industry Forum organised by the Application Identification and

Support activity• general dissemination events run by the Dissemination and Outreach

activity• direct contact with the Project Office at CERN and with regional

representatives on the EGEE Project Management Board.


Conclusions

• EGEE is expected to deliver an effective international production Grid infrastructure for real scientific applications world-wide

• Making very powerful computing power available through a worldwide research network could allow also small research groups in remote and still developing countries to contribute to major international research efforts

• EGEE federations will help to integrate a large number of existing and emerging national and regional Grid activities including in developing countries


To learn more:

EU EGEE – www.eu-egee.orgEU DataGrid – www.eu-edg.org

Other Grid projects – www.gridstart.org

EGEE is proposed as a project funded by the European Union under contract IST-2003-508833

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