On the Use of Virtualization and Service Technologies to Enable Grid-Computing

The In-VIGO approach to Grid-computing relies on the dynamic establishment of virtual grids on which application services are instantiated. InVIGO was conceived to enable computational science to take place In Virtual Information Grid Organizations. Having its first version deployed on July of 2003, In-VIGO middleware is currently used by scientists from various disciplines, a noteworthy example being the computational nanoelectronics research community (http://www.nanohub.org). All components of an InVIGO-generated virtual grid – machines, networks, applications and data – are themselves virtual and services are provided for their dynamic creation. This article reviews the In-VIGO approach to Grid-computing and overviews the associated middleware techniques and architectures for virtualizing Grid components, using services for creation of virtual grids and automatically Gridenabling unmodified applications. The In-VIGO approach to the implementation of virtual networks and virtual application services are discussed as examples of Grid-motivated approaches to resource virtualization and Web-service creation.