''Gridifying'' your application


An application that ordinarily runs on a stand-alone PC must be "gridified" before it can run on a grid.

Just like "webifying" applications to run on a web browser, grid users need to "gridify" their applications to run on a grid.

Once gridified, thousands of people will be able to use the same application and run it trouble-free on interoperable grids (like most software, there will always be a few bugs here and there).

"Gridification" means adapting applications to include new layers of grid-enabled software. For example, a gridified data analysis application  will be able to:

  • obtain the necessary authentication credentials to open the files it needs
  • query a catalogue to determine where the files are and which grid resources are able to do the analysis
  • submit requests to the grid, asking to extract data, initiate computations, and provide results
  • monitor progress of the various computations and data transfers, notifying the user when analysis is complete, and detecting and responding to failures (collective services).

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