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), using the middleware layers to adapt in a seamless way to the changing circumstances of the fabric.

Gridified applications need to be adapted to include new layers of software that enable them to run on a grid. For example, a gridified user application that needs to analyze data contained in several independent files will be able to:

• obtain the necessary authentication credentials to open the files
• query an information system and replica catalogue to determine where the files are and which computational resources can do the data analysis
• submit requests to the grid fabric and to the appropriate computers, storage systems, and networks, 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).