By Scott Koranda
Dan Ciruli at West Coast Grid writes
Europe is years ahead of the US in terms of large grids...
Is Europe years ahead of the US?
Open questions that come to mind include:
- What is a "large" grid?
- What makes one region "ahead" of another?
- What makes one region "years" ahead?
- If one region is years ahead, what are the reasons for it?
- What of other regions outside of Europe and the US?
Certainly the US and Europe both have some very large grids, so the question is, what was Dan taking into account when making his claim.
Scott -
ReplyDeleteI certainly wasn't trying to slight grid efforts on our own continent!
Europe seems to have embraced grids in a way the US hasn't. Projects like EuroGrid, EuroAG, and egee all get loads of governmental funding and put lots of processing power together.
Even at US grid events I've been to, I've heard casual mentions of the differences (at the Grid Summit in Chicago in 2005 it was a major point of discussion in one of the talks).
And Wolfgang Gentzsch wrote an article called "Grid Computing: How Europe is Leading the Pack" for Grid Today in 2005. http://www.gridtoday.com/grid/366726.html
So, don't get me wrong: I'm not claiming to have a formula that definitively decides what "grid score" each region has, and I wasn't trying to make a "claim" per se. I was simply reflecting what seems to be a prevailing opinion.
I will say this: I'd love to hear counterpoints. I'm a big believer in grid, I'm competitive, and I'm here in North America. I'd love to see a post that makes a case for North America as "grid central" in the world today!
Scott and Dan,
ReplyDeletewhat I meant in that GRIDtoday article in 2005 was my observation that Europe is working on grids on a more coordinated way than the US. All funded projects (see list in that article, status 2005) fit into one big longterm Agenda continuously discussed and updated by hundreds of hands-on and visionary experts, and resulting in the EC Framework Programmes. Projects like EGEE, DEISA, BEinGRID are the results, each in the order of $20++ Mio (same for EGEE 2 and 3, DEISA 2 and 3). Recent highlight is the European Grid Initiative (EGI) Design Study representing an effort to establish a sustainable grid infrastructure in Europe, involving over 35 European countries. It seems to me that US grid efforts are more scattered, resulting in many smaller 'community' grids (with a few exceptions which we all know) but that European efforts are well coordinated and steered by one central organization, the EU. It's just a different approach which in itself doesn't tell you anything about which one is the better.
Well stated, Wolfgang, and thanks for the reply.
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