Process space-based scientific workflow enactment

In the scientific field, workflow technology is often employed to conduct computer simulations or computer supported experiments. The underlying IT infrastructure typically comprises resources distributed among different institutes and organisations all over the world. Traditionally, workflows are executed on a single machine while the invoked software is accessed remotely. This approach imposes many drawbacks which are outlined in this paper. To address these weaknesses, we investigate the application of decentralised workflow enactment in the scientific domain. In this context, we explore the employment of process spaces, a middleware for the decentralised execution of workflows. Furthermore, we propose the combination of process spaces with the concept of data references to increase the overall performance of distributed simulations based on workflows. The considerations are discussed with the help of a scenario that calculates and visualises the ink diffusion in water over a period of time.