Objectives of the IT Research and Implementation Requirements

Specific Goals

• Enable researchers to submit simulations and other tasks transparently and seamlessly to all available resources.
• Facilitate the interaction of researchers physically seperated during the execution of a project.
• Coordinate and make available information about a project, including graphics images, to all collaborators, with no advance notice.
• Accelerate learning and engage in the non-specialist through visual tools and easy to use/install interfaces

To achieve these goals it will be necessary to:

• Provide metadata descriptions for all resources, including hardware, software, input files and parameters, running processes, and data generated as results of scientific projects.
• Provide collaborative metadata management tools that allow grouop members to participate in shared projects for managing job submissions and job management.
• Provide Web portals and other client interfaces that allow users to manage projects, participate in collaborative sessions, and analyze and visualize their data.
• Develop application-specific scheduling procedures to automate complex and numerous job submission sequences on distributed resources.
• Ensure compatibility of all tools and services with diverse clients operating through the Internet, such as mobile devices and PDAs.
• Permit the easy integration of new technologies.