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An important breakthrough
in grid computing technology has been made in France thanks to a strategic
partnership between IBM and IN2P3/ CNRS(1) . These two
partners recently entered into an agreement to share their resources and
their know-how for the development of grid technology.
The IN2P3 grid is made up of over 600 servers operated with Linux located
across nine sites in France(2). The grid software designed
by IBM will be tested on the IN2P3 grid, which is already operational.
IN2P3 and Grid: working together since 2000
Since 2000, the IN2P3 Department of the CNRS has been interested in this
new concept because of the enormous needs created by the next generation
of physics experiments. It collaborates with three other CNRS departments
(STIC, SDU, and SDV)(3) and with its main European partners.
For the last two years, IN2P3 has thus been able to set up, within the
scope of the European Datagrid project, a very large-scale prototype which
connects its own grid in France, Gripi (GRIlle Pluridisciplinaire IN2P3),
with 20 or so other European nodes. Although it is still in the experimental
stage, this is the largest grid currently operating in Europe and makes
it possible to satisfy the most pressing needs of physicists, biologists,
and specialists of the observation of the Earth.
IN2P3 ensures the deployment, tests, and operational support for the group.
“We are very pleased to be working on grids with IBM, which both
of us consider to be a strategic sector. IBM's internationally recognized
technological expertise will allow us to make our computing grids operational
and reliable much faster”, commented Jean-Jacques Aubert, Director
of IN2P3.
The marriage of technological and operational expertise
The two parties entered into an agreement that will grant IN2P3 privileged
access to the products and services provided by IBM and its partners.
In return, IBM will be able to perform demanding tests on its software
thanks to the grid infrastructure set up by IN2P3.
“For IBM, this agreement is doubly strategic, since we have been
working on the development of Grid Computing for several years and are
very close to the scientific community. By teaming up with the CNRS, one
of the main players in this field of technology, for the first grid implementation
in France, we are able to share our highly complementary know-how. This
is also an important achievement for IBM, since we have just delivered
our 500th server”, said Michel Teyssedre, Vice President of Strategic
Business Development eServer Sales EMEA.
For the next two years, the partnership's program includes conducting
certain key projects, all of which aim to increase the efficiency and
the reliability of these technologies: grid services, virtual storage,
autonomic computing, the utilization of grid technology for scientific
applications, and, lastly, computing and storage on request (ebusiness
on demand), by opening Gripi to scientific applications from the academic
world and industry for life sciences.
A system of exchange has been set up so that engineers, doctoral students,
and interns from both the Computing Center ("Centre de Calcul")
in Lyon and the Grid Technology Center in Montpellier, which are the respective
nerve centers for Gripi and for IBM, will enable rapid progress and exchange
between the two cultures. This partnership is an excellent example of
synergy between the public and private sectors to make advances in cutting-edge
technology.
About Grid Computing
The computing grid technology offered by Grid Computing aims to enable
access to computer power with the same ease as electrical power, while
offering the most demanding computer consumers a flexible and nearly unlimited
reservoir of resources. This is an ambitious goal, since this network
of computer resources will open new prospects with a major impact on research
as well as the economy: the pooling of resources within a large company,
the inexpensive and very large increase in computing power, and the possibility
to handle unexpected storage and computing needs without large investments.
About IBM
As worldwide leader of information technologies, IBM puts technological
innovation at the forefront of its ebusiness strategy, which is based
on Grid Computing technology. In order to offer global solutions - computer
systems, software, services and financing - at the cutting edge of technology,
every year IBM invests considerable amounts in research and development.
It is thus able to develop grid technologies based on the standards of
“Grid Computing” and was behind the concept of OGSA (“
Open Grid Service Architecture ”).
(1)
The National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the CNRS
(2) 9 sites: Paris, Orsay, Palaiseau, Lyon, Grenoble,
Annecy, Marseille, Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier
(3) STIC = Communication & Information Science and
Technology; SDU = Sciences of the Universe; SDV = Life Sciences.
Researcher
contact:
Guy Wormser
e-mail: wormser@in2p3.fr
tel: +33 1 44 96 47 54
IN2P3 contact:
Dominique Armand
e-mail: darmand@admin.in2p3.fr
tel: +33 1 44 96 47 51
IBM contact:
Barbara Coumaros
e-mail: bcoumaros@fr.ibm.com
tel: +33 1 49 05 38 46
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