Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 Supports Key Web Services Standards

Globus Toolkit, Version 4.0 (GT4) Released to Open Source Grid Development Community

Leading Grid Vendors, Standards Bodies and Development Community Call GT4 the Most 'Enterprise Ready' Version To Date

Chicago, IL, USA. May 02, 2005.

The Globus Consortium today announced the release of Globus Toolkit, version 4.0 (GT4), developed by the Globus Alliance. The Globus Toolkit is an open standards building block for enterprise-level Grid implementations.

GT4 is the most stable, "enterprise ready" version of the Globus Toolkit ever — incorporating the latest web services standards, new security and authorization features, and the collaborative efforts of a global community of open source Grid developers. GT4 can be downloaded at:

http://www.globustoolkit.org

"Interoperability, flexibility and the freedom to choose the best vendor products and equipment is what enterprise Grid is all about," said Ian Foster, Board Member with the Globus Consortium. "The leading enterprise Grid vendors and standards bodies are standing behind GT4 as the preferred open source software for enterprise Grids. By building Grids with the Globus Toolkit, and by working with vendors who support the Globus Toolkit — organizations can best position themselves to exploit the full potential of enterprise Grid."

For nearly a decade, a global community of Grid developers have contributed to Globus Toolkit code, and this latest GT4 release includes all of the necessary tools for building an enterprise Grid. Key additions to GT4 include:

GT4 complies with the latest Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) web services standards, which provides maximum interoperability between different environments.
GT4 includes initial support for important authorization standards, including Security Markup Language (SAML) and Extensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML). These provide business with a foundation for building a secure web-services enabled Grid infrastructure.
GT4 implements the Web Services Resource Framework (WS-RF) and Web Services Notification (WS-N) specifications, which are emerging standards in OASIS backed by major vendors for web services enablement of Grid and resource management systems.
GT4 features sophisticated authorization and security capabilities. Globus has always been diligent in Grid security, and GT4 is also "enterprise ready" from a security perspective.

"For nearly a decade, major vendors and standards bodies — including the Global Grid Forum (GGF) — have contributed to the open source Globus Toolkit," said Mark Linesch, Chair of the GGF. "The Globus Toolkit has seen terrific success in research, academic and commercial high-performance computing environments. By continuing to align with the latest grid and web services standards, GT4 is poised for broader adoption — particularly in enterprise markets where efficient resource sharing and more effective data integration are becoming increasingly critical."

North Carolina-based MCNC, which tests and deploys advanced networking solutions on its North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) in partnership with North Carolina universities and state government, recently performed successful "testbed" work on GT4 — with systems set up across the OC48 NCREN backbone. Vendor participants included: Cisco, Gridwise Technologies, IBM, Network Appliance, Red Hat and Sun.

"GT4 brings in all the standards and interfaces," said Wolfgang Gentzsch, the Managing Director at MCNC who oversaw the GT4 testbed efforts. "GT4 is much more flexible — it brings in the ability to easily enhance Grid towards additional services, like accounting and billing, metering and measuring. Now that a larger part of GT4 is based on web services — it is much easier to interface and communicate with other tools which are based on the same web services standards. As a result, more and more commercial tools will be compliant in the near future with Grid services."

Also standing behind the Globus Toolkit are the Globus Consortium Members — HP, IBM, Intel, Nortel, Sun and Univa — all of which have enterprise Grid products and services built on or around the Globus Toolkit. For example, IBM has offered its IBM Grid Toolbox based on the Globus Toolkit, and later this fall will announce a version based on GT4. And Grid Engine, the open source project sponsored by Sun, has been integrated into GT4 for a project at Imperial College in London. MCNC and Gridwise Technologies have also contributed to this effort.

"Globus Toolkit 4.0 allows enterprise users to bring standardized web services into a Grid environment, further simplifying the automated allocation of resources available on a Grid," said Greg Astfalk, Chief Scientist, Office of Corporate Strategy and Technology at HP. "HP sees Grid as a powerful way to virtualize and manage resources, enabling companies to respond to changing business needs and realize HP's vision of becoming Adaptive Enterprises."

"Standards are key to accelerating adoption of Grid Computing in the commercial marketplace," said Ken King, IBM's Vice President of Grid Computing. "A key driver of grid standards is the successful implementation and acceptance of Globus with enterprise customers. The new Globus Toolkit 4.0 adds more robust web services capabilities, enhanced security and powerful authorization features that we believe will be very compelling to our customers as they look at Grid as a way to simplify their infrastructure."

"Sun is actively engaged in bringing the productivity gains of grid computing into the enterprise," said Sohrab Modi, vice president, N1 Grid Systems, Sun Microsystems. "As a major supporter of open standards and open source software, Sun is pleased to see the arrival of Globus Toolkit 4 as another key tool toward achieving widespread use of grid technologies in the enterprise."

"Enterprises are increasingly challenged by constricting IT budgets, yet frustrated with proprietary, inflexible systems that remain under-utilized," said Steve Tuecke, CEO of Univa Corporation, a provider of commercial software, technical support and professional services for the Globus Toolkit. "Since the previous release of the Globus Toolkit, we have witnessed the emergence of many Web Services standards that are relevant for Grid infrastructure. Expanded support for these standards throughout GT4 enables enterprises to more easily integrate existing IT systems with Globus in order to optimize the use of existing computing, storage and networking resources."

About the Globus Consortium

The Globus Consortium is the world's leading organization championing open source Grid technologies in the enterprise. With the support of industry leaders IBM, Intel, HP, and Sun Microsystems, the Globus Consortium draws together the vast resources of IT industry vendors, enterprise IT groups, and a vital open source developer community to advance use of the Globus Toolkit in the enterprise. The Globus Toolkit is the de facto standard for Grid infrastructure enabling IT managers to view all of their distributed computing resources around the world as a unified virtual datacenter. By giving enterprises access to computing resources as they need it, IT costs can go up and down as business demands. An open Grid infrastructure is the pre-requisite to fulfilling the promise of utility computing.

Contact

Travis Van
Page One Public Relations
Tel: +1 650.565.9800, x103
Email: travis@pageonepr.com

[Source: http://www.globusconsortium.org/news/GT4available.pdf]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details in the 2005-05-03 news story: "Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 Features Support for Key Web Services Standards."

SEARCH Advanced Search ABOUT Site Map CP RSS Channel Contact Us Sponsoring CP About Our Sponsors NEWS Cover Stories Articles & Papers Press Releases CORE STANDARDS XML SGML Schemas XSL/XSLT/XPath XLink XML Query CSS SVG TECHNOLOGY REPORTS XML Applications General Apps Government Apps Academic Apps EVENTS LIBRARY Introductions FAQs Bibliography Technology and Society Semantics Tech Topics Software Related Standards Historic	Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 Supports Key Web Services Standards Globus Toolkit, Version 4.0 (GT4) Released to Open Source Grid Development Community Leading Grid Vendors, Standards Bodies and Development Community Call GT4 the Most 'Enterprise Ready' Version To Date Chicago, IL, USA. May 02, 2005. The Globus Consortium today announced the release of Globus Toolkit, version 4.0 (GT4), developed by the Globus Alliance. The Globus Toolkit is an open standards building block for enterprise-level Grid implementations. GT4 is the most stable, "enterprise ready" version of the Globus Toolkit ever — incorporating the latest web services standards, new security and authorization features, and the collaborative efforts of a global community of open source Grid developers. GT4 can be downloaded at: http://www.globustoolkit.org "Interoperability, flexibility and the freedom to choose the best vendor products and equipment is what enterprise Grid is all about," said Ian Foster, Board Member with the Globus Consortium. "The leading enterprise Grid vendors and standards bodies are standing behind GT4 as the preferred open source software for enterprise Grids. By building Grids with the Globus Toolkit, and by working with vendors who support the Globus Toolkit — organizations can best position themselves to exploit the full potential of enterprise Grid." For nearly a decade, a global community of Grid developers have contributed to Globus Toolkit code, and this latest GT4 release includes all of the necessary tools for building an enterprise Grid. Key additions to GT4 include: GT4 complies with the latest Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) web services standards, which provides maximum interoperability between different environments. GT4 includes initial support for important authorization standards, including Security Markup Language (SAML) and Extensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML). These provide business with a foundation for building a secure web-services enabled Grid infrastructure. GT4 implements the Web Services Resource Framework (WS-RF) and Web Services Notification (WS-N) specifications, which are emerging standards in OASIS backed by major vendors for web services enablement of Grid and resource management systems. GT4 features sophisticated authorization and security capabilities. Globus has always been diligent in Grid security, and GT4 is also "enterprise ready" from a security perspective. "For nearly a decade, major vendors and standards bodies — including the Global Grid Forum (GGF) — have contributed to the open source Globus Toolkit," said Mark Linesch, Chair of the GGF. "The Globus Toolkit has seen terrific success in research, academic and commercial high-performance computing environments. By continuing to align with the latest grid and web services standards, GT4 is poised for broader adoption — particularly in enterprise markets where efficient resource sharing and more effective data integration are becoming increasingly critical." North Carolina-based MCNC, which tests and deploys advanced networking solutions on its North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) in partnership with North Carolina universities and state government, recently performed successful "testbed" work on GT4 — with systems set up across the OC48 NCREN backbone. Vendor participants included: Cisco, Gridwise Technologies, IBM, Network Appliance, Red Hat and Sun. "GT4 brings in all the standards and interfaces," said Wolfgang Gentzsch, the Managing Director at MCNC who oversaw the GT4 testbed efforts. "GT4 is much more flexible — it brings in the ability to easily enhance Grid towards additional services, like accounting and billing, metering and measuring. Now that a larger part of GT4 is based on web services — it is much easier to interface and communicate with other tools which are based on the same web services standards. As a result, more and more commercial tools will be compliant in the near future with Grid services." Also standing behind the Globus Toolkit are the Globus Consortium Members — HP, IBM, Intel, Nortel, Sun and Univa — all of which have enterprise Grid products and services built on or around the Globus Toolkit. For example, IBM has offered its IBM Grid Toolbox based on the Globus Toolkit, and later this fall will announce a version based on GT4. And Grid Engine, the open source project sponsored by Sun, has been integrated into GT4 for a project at Imperial College in London. MCNC and Gridwise Technologies have also contributed to this effort. "Globus Toolkit 4.0 allows enterprise users to bring standardized web services into a Grid environment, further simplifying the automated allocation of resources available on a Grid," said Greg Astfalk, Chief Scientist, Office of Corporate Strategy and Technology at HP. "HP sees Grid as a powerful way to virtualize and manage resources, enabling companies to respond to changing business needs and realize HP's vision of becoming Adaptive Enterprises." "Standards are key to accelerating adoption of Grid Computing in the commercial marketplace," said Ken King, IBM's Vice President of Grid Computing. "A key driver of grid standards is the successful implementation and acceptance of Globus with enterprise customers. The new Globus Toolkit 4.0 adds more robust web services capabilities, enhanced security and powerful authorization features that we believe will be very compelling to our customers as they look at Grid as a way to simplify their infrastructure." "Sun is actively engaged in bringing the productivity gains of grid computing into the enterprise," said Sohrab Modi, vice president, N1 Grid Systems, Sun Microsystems. "As a major supporter of open standards and open source software, Sun is pleased to see the arrival of Globus Toolkit 4 as another key tool toward achieving widespread use of grid technologies in the enterprise." "Enterprises are increasingly challenged by constricting IT budgets, yet frustrated with proprietary, inflexible systems that remain under-utilized," said Steve Tuecke, CEO of Univa Corporation, a provider of commercial software, technical support and professional services for the Globus Toolkit. "Since the previous release of the Globus Toolkit, we have witnessed the emergence of many Web Services standards that are relevant for Grid infrastructure. Expanded support for these standards throughout GT4 enables enterprises to more easily integrate existing IT systems with Globus in order to optimize the use of existing computing, storage and networking resources." About the Globus Consortium The Globus Consortium is the world's leading organization championing open source Grid technologies in the enterprise. With the support of industry leaders IBM, Intel, HP, and Sun Microsystems, the Globus Consortium draws together the vast resources of IT industry vendors, enterprise IT groups, and a vital open source developer community to advance use of the Globus Toolkit in the enterprise. The Globus Toolkit is the de facto standard for Grid infrastructure enabling IT managers to view all of their distributed computing resources around the world as a unified virtual datacenter. By giving enterprises access to computing resources as they need it, IT costs can go up and down as business demands. An open Grid infrastructure is the pre-requisite to fulfilling the promise of utility computing. Contact Travis Van Page One Public Relations Tel: +1 650.565.9800, x103 Email: travis@pageonepr.com [Source: http://www.globusconsortium.org/news/GT4available.pdf] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See details in the 2005-05-03 news story: "Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 Features Support for Key Web Services Standards."