GRID: a research product offering great opportunities for the industry

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GRID a research product offering great
opportunities for the industry
Federico RossiGrid Business Development
Director Casimir Workshop Milan - 24 February
2005
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Outline

• Grid a short introduction
• stolen (with permission from Grid guru Prof.
  Domenico Laforenza CNR-ISTI)
• Grid for the industry the potential users
• Grid from the industry the solution providers
• DATAMAT experience
• How to build Grid future
• Conclusions

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e-Science and Grid

• The term e-Science refers to large scale
  research, carried out through distributed global
  collaborations over the Internet.
• The individual users need access to very large
  data collections, very large computing resources
  and high performance visualization
• Source http//www.rcuk.ac.uk/escience/
• The enabling technologies for e-science are
• Internet and the Web
• allowing to discover and access information on a
  global scale
• Digital Libraries
• a new form of scholarly communication
  infrastructure that holds the promise of enabling
  more complete exploitation of knowledge and
  yields new capabilities and capacities so
  effectively and efficiently that they are
  intuitive and transparent in their operation
  (ubiquitous knowledge environment).
• Grid
• an infrastructure to share capabilities, to
  integrate services and resources, and to develop
  active collaborations across distributed,
  multi-organizational environments

.
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The Grid
Utility Computing
On Demand Computing
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Electrical Grid

• Electric power applications have caused radical
  changes into the individual and collective life
  of human being

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Grid Evolution - Metacomputing

• Different Supercomputing Resources
• geographically distributed
• used as a single powerful parallel machine
  (clear, High-Performance orientation)

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Grid Evolution Scalable Virtual Organizations

• Grid computing has emerged as an important new
  field, distinguished from conventional
  distributed computing by its focus on large-scale
  resource sharing, innovative applications, and,
  in some cases, high-performance orientation.
• The Anatomy of the Grid Enabling Scalable
  Virtual Organizations Ian Foster, Carl Kesselman,
  and Steven Tuecke Fall 2001

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Grid Evolution Interoperability

• But an open question remains
• is the far-reaching vision offered by Grid
  Computing obscured by the lack of
  interoperability standards among Grid
  technologies ?
• (where interoperability describes whether or not
  two components of a system that were developed
  with different tools or different vendor products
  can work together)

How to guarantee interoperability among Grids ?
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Grid Evolution Interoperability

• The marriage of the Web technology with the 2nd
  Generation Grid technology led to new and generic
  Grid Services
• The Physiology of the Grid An Open Grid Services
  Architecture for Distributed Systems Integration
  I. Foster, C. Kesselman, J. Nick, S. Tuecke,
  January, 2002
• http//www.globus.org/research/papers/ogsa.pdf

GRID Computing Web Services Grid Services
The 3rd Generation Grid
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Outline

• Grid a short introduction
• Grid for the industry the potential users
• Early adopters
• Target sectors
• Grid from the industry the solution providers
• DATAMAT experience
• How to build Grid future
• Conclusions

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The dilemma of innovator and the early adopters

• The new technology changing the way user works
  can be considered
• Disruptive
• An expensive toy
• Innovation must be focused on the user
  operational context with his actual user needs.

• To overcome the chasm between early adopters and
  more pragmatists or conservatives users,
  solutions and convenience must be shown beyond
  the satisfaction of basic needs.

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The traditional distributed supercomputing
applications

• High Performance Technical Computing for
• Automotive
• Fluid-dynamics (e.g. Fluent)
• Structural analysis (e.g. MSC-Nastran)
• Crash test

• Chemical / Pharmaceutical
• Bio-molecular simulation integratingexisting
  biological and chemical codes
• Design of advanced materials (nano-, catalysts,
  

• Aerospace
• Coupled simulations
• EMC
• CFD / Structural analysis

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The emerging ubiquitous networked society and
e-Collaboration market

• The information society is proceeding in the
  direction of both distribution and integration.
• New value chains are being created, as
  appropriate for each situation, thus building
  Virtual Organisations characterised by being
• Objective driven
• Time limited
• Multi-enterprise
• Dynamic
• changing the scope of traditional processes and
  workflows.
• e-Collaboration offers an unprecedented way for
  organisations to facilitate coordination and
  communication, decision making and sharing of
  knowledge, skills and resources

Challenge a common data standard for
integration of operations"
"In a recent Oil and Gas Industry Survey 84 of
companies think e-collaboration is important."
Grid technology enables e-collaboration"
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Grid enabling e-collaboration some
examplesCollaborative / concurrent engineering

• Aeronautics
• Distributed design and testing(e.g. AIRBUS with
  production plants spread all over Europe)
• Subcomponents / subcontractors management

• Air Transport
• Service level management / validation

• Space
• Distributed Concurrent Design Facility,extension
  of concurrent engineering approach to following
  development phases

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The new sectors being explored (1)

• Finance
• Risk management / portfolio evaluation

• Health care
• Surgical simulation
• Large data bases Screening

• Crisis management
• Scientific-technical-operational collaboration
• Intelligent DSS

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The new sectors being explored (2)

• Services for SME
• Use of shared resources intechnological
  districts (e.g. PEP)
• Media, entertainment
• Rendering, 3d animation

• Telecommunications
• Network routing optim.
• 3G, B3G,
• and more
• e-government, e-learning
• Meteo for Tourism , Sport,

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Outline

• Grid a short introduction
• Grid for the industry the potential users
• Grid from the industry the solution providers
• DATAMAT experience
• How to build Grid future
• Conclusions

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The solution providers

• Hardware, Middleware, Software manufacturers
• IBM, HP, NEC, Fujitsu, Intel, Sun, SGI
• UNIVA, Unicore, Platform,
• Nice, Gridxpert, Gridsystems,
• Oracle, Microsoft, SAP,
• IT Service providers (integration,
  applications,)
• SAS, DATAMAT, Atos Origin,
• Telecom Service providers
• BT, Telecom Italia, Telefonica,
• The Alliances (more or less sponsored)
• Globus Alliance, EGA,
• The standardisation bodies with industrial
  participation
• GGF, W3C, OASIS, IETF, DMTF,

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DATAMAT profile

• A top player in Italian ICT market with 30 years
  experience
• 1,500 young and highly qualified employees (end
  2004)
• 184 M Sales, 23.5 M EBITDA (FY2003)
• Supply ICT solutions for end users in specific
  segments of our vertical reference markets
• Bank, Insurance and Finance
• Public Administration and Healthcare
• Telecommunications and Utilities
• Defence, Space Environment
• Industry.
• through the delivery of products, systems and
  integrated services based on specific functional
  and/or context requirements
• Leveraging on
• Strong application expertise (knowledge of client
  primary processes)
• Strong technical and technological competencies
  (state-of-the-art)
• Management and organizational capabilities in
  managing complex and high economic value
  contractual responsibilities

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One of our key success factor continuous RD
investments

• More than 32,000 hours dedicated to RD in 1Q04
  (125,000 in 2003), approximately 5 of total
  hours

Development Continuous launch of new products
and upgrades Only a small part of development
costs are capitalised, 2.1m in FY03 Capitalized
costs (net of amortization) for 1.9m in balance
sheet at 31.03.04
Research Continuous participation with
leadership roles in national and international
research projects financed by public and private
bodies (European Commission, NATO, Ministry of
Scientific and Technologic Research, Ministry of
Defence) Return in term of revenues and grants
for 3.7m in FY03
Strong combination of technological and process
expertise
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Why DATAMAT in Grid?

• Our traditional focus is on innovation, with a
  long record of international RD projects
  followed by successful commercial exploitation.
• We perceived Grid as one of the most promising
  novelties for the ICT market, enabling (data- or
  computing- intensive) distributed applications,
  but also emerging context such as
  e-collaboration.
• To acquire a specific knowledge of the
  technology, to understand its potential business
  return in terms of application and services
  deployment, also by applying technology transfer
  across our reference markets, we decided in 2000
  to participate in the first large Grid Project in
  Europe

and in the following years to other European
outstanding initiatives
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Which kind of collaboration with research
institutions?

• The collaboration with research institutions, in
  particular from the computer scientists within
  the High Energy Physics community (INFN is the
  foremost example!), resulted extremely
  profitable.
• The cross-fertilization resulting from mixing
  different backgrounds allowed our teams to
  improve in terms of
• Flexibility
• Teamwork
• Openness to innovative ideas
• while being able to transfer our traditional
  development culture in terms of
• Structured approach
• Consolidated methodologies for analysis and
  design
• Tight project management (resource allocation,
  planning, ).

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Grid-business perspectives

• DATAMAT is looking forward to three, potentially
  inclusive, business models
• Grid Consultancy
• Provide expertise to end-users to grid-enable
  their applications
• Grid Application Service Provider
• Develop grid-enabled applications, maintain them,
  also taking in charge the needed logical and
  physical infrastructure and the relevant services
• Grid Service Provider
• Provide grid services to end-users (utility /
  on-demand paradigm) to satisfy their temporary
  requests for computing or storage power.

• Furthermore, it is important to underline the
  potential role Grid can play as enabling
  technology for Virtual Organisations and
  Collaborative Environments.

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Outline

• Grid a short introduction
• Grid for the industry the potential users
• Grid from the industry the solution providers
• DATAMAT experience
• How to build Grid future
• Conclusions

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Which risks?

• The easily perceivable risks, that could
  jeopardise the implementation (at least on a
  reasonable time-scale) of identified business
  perspectives, concern in particular
• The technology
• The architectures, the available
  implementations, the relevant standards are not
  yet mature enough to have a kind of
  grid-out-of-the-box to be easily demonstrated
  to potential industrial customer

• The market
• Hindering factors for an adequate maturation
  are the poor diffusion of innovative concepts,
  the consequent little confidence in the
  technology as solution to real problems, a
  commercial context where often launch takes
  place much earlier than actual availability, and
  the fragmentation of a pseudo-offer.

But dont forget legal and social aspects!!
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How to mitigate such risks?

• DATAMAT position, from an industrial viewpoint,
  is that beyond the actions undertaken by
  companies (individually or in association), it is
  important to interact with the public component
  of research, in order to achieve stability and
  continuity, the two main factors really making
  possible the commercial exploitation of the Grid.

• This can be achieved undertaking and securing
  initiatives at all levels (National, European,
  Global) in terms of
• Infrastructure deployment
• Middleware standardisation
• Application development

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A pan-European Grid infrastructure deployment

• Relationship with public sector research is here
  fundamental to deploy and operate a wide and
  reliable Grid Infrastructure that can also be
  available, at least initially, to Industry.
• This will enhance confidence in Grid from those
  end-user industries that have problems suitable
  to be solved with the help of Grid, but that
  still do not have enough evidence that such
  technology could give benefits on a large scale
  and in an industrial arena.
• We consider a first important step in this
  direction the EC FP6 initiative EGEE, aiming at
  setting up a production-quality infrastructure
  for research such effort should not stop with
  the end of the project, but should as well be
  supported as a long-lasting initiative.

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A convergence of middleware on Grid for business

• From an industrial viewpoint, it is mandatory
  that middleware technologically converges on
  solid business models and shared architectures to
  be exploited on Grid Infrastructures.
• As Grid is about dynamic sharing and
  collaboration across multiple administrative
  domains, this means to enhance and standardise
  all technological aspects such as
• Security, e.g. Trustworthiness, Integrity,
  Confidentiality, Identity Identification,
  Privacy, Reliability,
• Service orientation, e.g. QoS, SLA, fault
  tolerance,
• Grid economics, e.g. Accounting, Payment,
  Compensation...
• plus
• Certification (as a result of an industrial level
  engineering process)
• In few words, to support a next generation of
  Grid technology to move the focus from e-Science
  to e-Business.

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in a coordinated way

• To ease sharing of developed solutions and
  technology take-up (in particular for SMEs), and
  start building value-added services, it makes
  sense that public and private research
  institutions commit themselves in setting up
  initiatives aimed at
• Promotion, integration, validation and packaging
  of platforms and solutions,
• Repository of certified component / solutions
• Education, Training, after-sales support
• This would allow to complement on going
  initiatives, such as gLite development in EGEE,
  or next generation grid architecture definition
  in NextGRID, by long-lasting foundations, not
  just bounded to a single (or a series of)
  project(s).
• It is reasonable to ensure it at the global
  level, taking into account, harmonising, and
  federating on-going efforts at continental and
  national level (e.g. US NMI, UK OMII, IT
  c-OMEGA,).

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A new generation of Grid-enabled applications

• The initiatives on application side shall
• Ease the diffusion of a Grid culture, at most
  through a generalised test-bed policy aimed at
  demonstrating in concrete terms the advantages of
  using it, in strong synergy with research
• Grid enable classes of applications by developing
  suitable tool kits and/or porting existing
  problem solving environment on Grid contexts
• Standardise (standardise, standardise, ) as much
  as possible the access to Grid services and
  resources, to strongly reduce the dependency on
  specific middleware implementation and/or
  specific infrastructure
• Explore new working environments (e.g. ambient
  intelligence, nomadic / mobile environment)

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Grid in Lombardia and the Four Motors Initiative

• Milan (Dept. of Physics and INFN) is one of the
  main centres of Grid development and deployment
• Leading role in EGEE middleware and in
  exploitation by the applications (ATLAS
  experiment at LHC) 8 persons working with
  contracts funded by EGEE
• The Representatives of the Regions which comprise
  the "Four Motors for Europe (Baden-Württemberg,
  Catalunya, Lombardia, Rhône-Alpes ) have recently
  signed a
• COLLABORATION AGREEMENT TO SPONSOR COORDINATED
  DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF AN INFORMATION GRID
  INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND
  ENHANCED SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL
  APPLICATIONS
• The main goal is to spread and disseminate the
  culture of Information Grids, attracting in the
  initiative all the interested partners on the
  territory
• The Lombardia Lead Partner for the GridPort is
  the University of Pavia

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Outline

• Grid a short introduction
• Grid for the industry the potential users
• Grid from the industry the solution providers
• DATAMAT experience
• How to build Grid future
• Conclusions

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Conclusions

• Considering growing interest of industrial user
  community (see enterprise grid days at GGF-12, EC
  FP6 IDs, ), initial expectations on Grid are
  going to be fulfilled.
• Initial enthusiasm is now being replaced by
  consciousness of the actual potential and risks,
  in terms of business and ROI, adequately steering
  strategic technical choices (e.g. web
  services-grid convergence).
• From an industrial viewpoint, to make profit out
  of technology, it is fundamental to achieve the
  needed stability and continuity, focusing new
  initiatives on bridging research and industry.
• DATAMAT, while confirming its commitment in
  on-going and future innovation activities,
  believes that Grid community should push
  stakeholders to

• Put in action a long-living global Grid
  infrastructures deployment plan (migrating
  towards new models, e.g. DANTE)
• Ensure the support to the technological
  convergence of middleware on Grid for business
• Put in place promotion, education, certification,
  repository, technology transfer activities to
  widen Grid culture diffusion and favour uptake in
  new application contexts.

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MANY THANKS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION
and thanks to EC and ESA institutional websites
and EGEE, EUROGRID, SIMDAT, CROSSGRID, SPACEGRID,
GRIA, HEALTHGRID project websites, useful
sources of images and information