Future Grid
FutureGrid is a project at Indiana University, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It provides a high-performance grid for testing and developing innovative approaches for grid, cloud computing and virtualization technology to researchers. This includes topics such as authentication, authorization, planning, virtualization, middleware design, interface design and cyber security, optimization of grid-enabled and cloud-enabled numerical methods for researchers in astronomy, chemistry, biology, engineering, science, and atmospheric epidemiology. FutureGrid will provide the infrastructure for researchers willing to carry out experiments with distributed systems in a transparent manner.
FutureGrid users are able to provide their own hardware and software configurations on a public/private cloud to store their configurations and perform experiments on it. The FutureGrid testbed consists of a heterogeneous cluster of geographically distributed high-performance computers, a data management system that contains both metadata and a growing library of software images, and a dedicated high-speed network. Virtual machine-based environments and native operating systems are supported to ensure both minimal overhead and maximum performance. The partners integrate existing open source software packages to enable an easy-to-use software environment that supports the instantiation, execution and recording of grid and cloud computing experiments.
The NSF supports the joint development of future grid with USD $ 10.1 million. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Geoffrey C. Fox, director of the Digital Science Center at the IU Pervasive Technology Institute.
Partners
- Indiana University
- Purdue University
- University of California, San Diego
- University of Chicago / Argonne National Labs
- University of Florida
- University of Southern California
- University of Texas
Project Term
10/2009 - 10/2013