Keith Jeffery

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

The Future of GRIDs - a European Perspective

The European approach to GRID technology has differed from that of the USA. The US developments were in metacomputing related to simulation whereas from the beginning the European approach included also data and information related to scientific research experiments. In UK in 1999 the e-Science programme was envisaged as a universal e-infrastructure first to support R&D and then - with this testing and development - to support business. The EC (European Commission) took up the idea and the GRIDs unit funded many significant projects with strategy determined by NGG (Next Generation GRID Expert Group). The merging of web services and GRIDs in 1992 was pushed by Europe to allow GRIDs to become such an infrastructure. Newer strategic projects are converging GRIDs and SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). The R&D challenges are discussed and some solutions proposed.

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Biography

Keith Jeffery is currently Director IT and International Strategy, STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council), based at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in UK. Keith previously had operational responsibility for IT with 360,000 users, 1100 servers and 140 staff. Keith holds 3 honorary visiting professorships, is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and the British Computer Society, is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional and an Honorary Fellow of the Irish Computer Society. Keith is currently president of ERCIM and euroCRIS, and serves on international expert groups, conference boards and assessment panels.