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“In the future, this technology will enable access to data storage, supercomputers, programs and measuring instruments from anywhere,” said Thomas Rachel, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), on the occasion of the D-Grid All Hands Meeting in Göttingen, at which experts are discussing the steps for setting up the grid in Germany. “This makes it clear: Everyone will benefit from the computer network of the future.”
The ministry is currently funding more than 150 D-Grid projects with 60 million euros. With the High-Tech Strategy, the BMBF will continue to support the establishment of the D-Grid network in the future. The second group of D-Grid collaborative projects, which involves business enterprises more strongly than before, is currently beginning. According to State Secretary Rachel, the network is facing a transformation: “At present, it is mainly science that uses the grid,” Rachel said. “But soon this technology will become a universal tool in many other areas.”
The goal is the everyday use of the possibilities provided by the grid in science and business. A further BMBF funding announcement is planned for this year. Alongside the further development and adaptation of the technological foundations and the involvement of additional user groups from business enterprises, one focus of future D-Grid projects will be the development of business and usage models for grid services.
The BMBF is funding the following new D-Grid collaborative projects:
AeroGrid: Efficient grid-based working environment for German aviation research for the cross-location use of current program versions, data and computers. Lead: German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne. Industry partners: MTU Aero Engines; T-Systems Solutions for Research GmbH.
BauVOGrid: Portal for the use of construction services such as quantity/cost calculation or 3D renderings, which also supports short-notice changes to process sequences. Lead: TU Dresden, Institute of Construction Informatics. Industry partners: Bilfinger Berger AG; BAM Deutschland AG; IDS Scheer AG; RIB Information Technologies AG; Seib ITC GmbH; TransMIT Gesellschaft für Technologietransfer mbH
BIS-Grid: Use of grid technologies in the field of business information systems to integrate decentralized systems. Lead: OFFIS – Institute for Information Technology, Oldenburg. Industry partners: CADsys Vertriebs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH; CeWe Color AG & Co OHG; Kieselstein GmbH; Siemens AG -Siemens IT Solutions and Services
Biz2Grid: Grid technology in companies for investigating business-management and economic questions and implementing an infrastructure for accounting, pricing and billing. Lead: IBM, Böblingen. Associated industry partner without funding: BMW Munich
F&L-Grid: Development of a service grid for research and teaching, including conception of the underlying cooperation and business models, as well as the specification and implementation of grid-based services (Backup & Archive). Lead: T-Systems Solutions for Research, Stuttgart.
FinGrid: Optimization of suitable financial services and processes through the use of grid-based applications. Lead: Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. Industry partners: IBM Deutschland GmbH; PA Consulting Group; Associated industry partners without funding: DataSynapse; Deutsche Bank; Dresdner Bank; FinanzIT
GDI-Grid: Efficient integration and processing of georeferenced data on the basis of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial data infrastructures (GDI) in grid-capable service chains. Lead: RRZN Hannover. Industry partners: ESRI Geoinformatik GmbH, lat/lon GmbH, Mapsolute GmbH, Stapelfeldt Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH; Associated industry partners without funding: Björnsen Beratende Ingenieure GmbH, Brüel & Kjaer GmbH, IBM Deutschland GmbH, Intergraph GmbH, LGN-Landesvermessung und Geobasisinformation Niedersachsen GmbH
PartnerGrid: Development of a software platform configurable according to the requirements of industrial users, which efficiently supports collaboration in a virtual organization of clients, suppliers and service providers. Lead: Fraunhofer IAO. Industry partners: GNS mbH; MAGMA Gießereitechnologie GmbH; Associated industry partners without funding: SCHMOLZ+Bickenbach GUSS GmbH & Co. KG; Rautenbach Aluminium-Technologie GmbH; Volkswagen AG
ProGrid: Use of D-Grid technology for the distributed product development of the automotive industry and its suppliers. Lead: science + computing ag. Industry partners: FE-Design GmbH; INTES GmbH; PDTec GmbH; Wilhelm Karmann GmbH
SUGI: Establishment of access to D-Grid for small and medium-sized computing centers at universities as well as the corporate IT of SMEs that have so far introduced grid technologies only to a limited extent. Lead: University of Cologne. Associated industry partners without funding: IBM Deutschland GmbH; Sun Microsystems GmbH
