Title of the session:

The Grid technological concept -

Challenges for Europe and RTD efforts supported by the European Commission

Abstract: The demand for resources (computing, storage, etc.) to solve the complex problems of science, industry and business continues to increase exponentially. The ability of the core technologies of the digital economy (processor speed, memory, etc.) are currently not sufficient to solve these problems. Grid computing, an evolution of cluster computing enabled by recent advances in communication technologies, is harnessing these technologies and giving applications seamless access to resources distributed throughout the world. Access to resources will fuel development of new technological solutions. These will have major impacts.

In Europe the Grid is seen as a tool, that will support competitiveness of its research, industry and business. It is a central theme of the eEurope Action Plan (“foster World Wide Grid”). eEurope is the main policy initiative developed by the Commission and Member States to ensure that Europe has a digital future.

The Grid is becoming a very important activity for the Information Society Technologies RTD Programme of the European Union. Significant European projects have already been launched (DATAGRID, EUROGRID, DAMIEN) and essential new research efforts are expected to start before the end of the current year. International collaboration and the upgrade of the Research Networks in Europe is fueling the development of the Grid. Already in the drafts of the European Commission’s new Framework Programme for Research (2002-2006) Grids are identified as the enabling technologies and infrastructures for tomorrow. The Grid will be part of the infrastructure of the future, and ensuring that it is available will be a major challenge.

Speakers:

Kyriakos Baxevanidis, European Commission, Belgium

Dr Susanna Tosi, Data Processing Centre, CNR - National Research Council, Italy (representative of European project DATAGRID)

Dr Karl Solchenbach, Managing Director of Pallas GmbH, Germany (representative of European project EUROGRID)

Dr Edgar Gabriel, High Performance Computing Centre Stuttgart, Germany (representative of European project DAMIEN)