RISC - Linz Research Institute for Symbolic Computation

The Cloud is often referred to as the next big thing in distributed computing. Cloud providers offer different kinds and different levels of services, leading to new kinds of application and raising interest from many, including the media. But what is really behind this new approach of using networking resources for community applications? This talk intends to provide a neutral survey of cloud solutions with an in-depth analysis of specific characteristics. The starting point is a classification of cloud services, explaining the differences and available solutions. Experiments with actual clouds provide more detailed information about the viability of using the cloud for science and research, and offer a glimpse on today's benefits and future drawbacks of cloud computing. Prof. Dr. Dieter Kranzlmüller Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich and Leibniz Supercomputing Centre Invited Talk 2: An Overview of CRO grid NGI Abstract CRO NGI (Croatian National Grid Infrastructure) is an integrated allocated computer environment, consisting primarily of computer (processing) and data (disc and tape) resources, which are located in geographically allocated sites within the Republic of Croatia. CRO NGI is a common resource of the scientific and academic community and represents the fundamental infrastructure for the scientific research, the application of new technologies and the integration of Croatia and Croatian scientists into the European Research (ERA) and European Higher Education (EHEA) Area. The Coordinator of CRO NGI is the University Computing Centre University of Zagreb SRCE. The CRO NGI Board, appointed by the minister responsible for science, the Council of Partners and the Council of Users take part in the management. CRO NGI is financed as a separate unit in the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia. The first CRO NGI Partner Contracts were signed on November 5, 2007 by four institutions, plus two Partners by default the Ministry of Science and Education and CARNet, the Croatian NREN. The Croatian National Grid Initiative (CRO-GRID) is a voluntary-based association of academic and research institutions, government institutions and commercial companies gathered around CRO NGI. Founders and members of CRO-GRID are the institutions which took part in the poly-project CRO-GRID from 2004 to 2007. Dobrisa Dobrenic University Computing Center-SRCE, University of Zagreb THE SWISS NATIONAL GRID ASSOCIATION AND ITS EXPERIENCE ON A NATIONAL GRID INFRASTRUCTURE Nabil Abdennadher, Dean Flanders, Sigve Haug, Pierre Kuonen, Heinz Stockinger, Christoph Witzig Abstract In the following article we provide our experience with the creation of the Swiss National Grid Association (SwiNG) as well as the establishment of a nation­wide Grid infrastructure based on the ARC Grid middleware. Although not yet fully in production, we have already several scientific user communities in different domains (high energy physics, snow and avalanche related physics, biochemistry, proteomics (bioinformatics) and computer security).In the following article we provide our experience with the creation of the Swiss National Grid Association (SwiNG) as well as the establishment of a nation­wide Grid infrastructure based on the ARC Grid middleware. Although not yet fully in production, we have already several scientific user communities in different domains (high energy physics, snow and avalanche related physics, biochemistry, proteomics (bioinformatics) and computer security).