More information about use cases will be posted here shortly, but some notes in the meantime...

Useful Use Cases references

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography Nagaratnam et al.] May 2003: The use cases are good for the customer-service provider models and the scenarios where an intermediary is used.

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography Foster et al.] October 2004: Large document with lots of use cases. Use this to bolster our set of use cases.

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography Welch et al.] June 2003:Von Welch et. al. Fairly technical use cases – may be useful at a slightly deeper level.

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography Advanced Collaborative Environments references] July 02 and Dec 04. Could be useful. The earlier document contains use cases and risk analyses.

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography eInfrastructure Reflection Group White Paper Version 5.51] (13 April 2004). May be useful for architecture and use models. Alun investigating further.

[wiki:RequirementsBibliography The Grid: An Infrastructure for e-Business and e-Science] David Walker of Cardiff University provides use cases for e-science, and take-up of grid technology, use cases, incl mention of e-Health, e-Business, e-Commerce, e-Learning. Grid uses include:

• Service Providers and Brokers (Trend is towards network-based computing paradigm. Nodes offer different sets of computing services with known advertised interfaces. Software is increasingly seen as a “pay-as-you-go” service rather than a product that you buy once computational economies. Web services important in architecture of the Grid.)
• Use Case 1: Utility Computing (Access the power of a remote computer from user’s desktop. Used to run “canned” applications provided on remote computer. End users may be provided with an API or job submission/management tools. Usually a fee is charged. Quite a simple use of the Grid.)
• Utility Computing: Advantages (End user doesn’t have to install, maintain, or update application. Service provider has low user support costs, and there is less likelihood of the code being pirated. Simple business model. Also works for data and storage.)
• Utility Computing: Issues (Can the end user trust the results returned by the service? (trust, reputation) Should the end user be allowed to execute their own applications on the remote machine? (trust, reputation) If there are several remote resources all providing the same service, which one should an end-user use (discovery, negotiation, and markets).)
• Use Case 2: Enterprise Integration (A distributed organisation wants to make all its compute resources (cycles, data, storage) accessible to all its members. Large companies are often interested in this. Assumes everyone in the organisation is trusted. Corresponds to a simple mini-grid.)
• Enterprise Integration: Advantages (Reduce total cost of ownership. Improve productivity. Extend capability. Reduce design costs Reduce time to market.)
• Enterprise Integration: Issues (Need some form of access control – not all members of the organisation should have access to all resources. Need some form of scheduling so that most important tasks have priority, and resources are accessed fairly.)
• Use Case 3: Virtual Organisations (Many tasks requiring collaboration and resource sharing that spans organisational boundaries. Need mechanisms for controlling access and ensuring security. Same organisations my co-operate on one project and compete on another. VO is also called an “extended enterprise”)
• Example of an Extended Enterprise: GECEM (GECEM: Grid-Enabled Computational Electromagnetics. Partners are BAE Systems, HP, Singapore Institute of HPC, Swansea and Cardiff universities. Partners form a globally-distributed extended enterprise.)
• Slides about CEM
• Why use the grid (Industrial and academic partners form an “extended enterprise” in which resources are intrinsically distributed, and only partially shared. Partners may be prepared to share data, but not the hardware and proprietary software that produces the data.)
• Issues in Remote Execution (Performance and resilience. Mainly network issues. Security. Would like to migrate code to remote resource, execute it, and return results with minimum risk of unauthorised interference.)
• The Output (Status results are returned to the client throughout execution. Results of CEM simulation are returned to client and visualised.)
• e-Health: electronic patient records, distributed and/or remote diagnosis, collaborative surgical planning.
• e-Business: streamline, distribute, and enhance business processes.
• e-Commerce: use the Grid as a marketplace for both traditional and innovative goods and services.
• e-Learning: remove barriers to education and training.

Short/Medium/Long term expectations of the Grid

1. The [wiki:RequirementsBibliography IAP document] page 6 gives a medium term view of what the Grid could be used for and has some implicit requirements (see notes in [wiki:RequirementsBibliography Bibliography] ).

2. [wiki:RequirementsBibliography The Grid: An Infrastructure for e-Business and e-Science] David Walker of Cardiff University provides use cases for e-science, and take-up of grid technology, use cases, incl mention of e-Health, e-Business, e-Commerce, e-Learning.