Update: Abstract submission form and link to registration site now available.

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to call your attention to the following workshop to be held in conjunction with the Open Grid Forum OGF 34 meeting.  We invite your contributions in the form of a brief abstract in response to the questions that form the focus of the workshop, as described below. All submissions will be considered; a wide variety of submissions is recruited.

Your cooperation in circulating this call to your colleagues would be appreciated.  Please respond or direct any questions to the primary workshop organizer, Dr. Jens Jensen of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,  by e-mail at jens.jensen@stfc.ac.uk or by the registration form that is now available at the workshop site.

Workshop on Science Applications and Infrastructure
in Clouds and Grids


Oxford, UK
March 15-16, 2012

Science in general continues to make increasing use of advanced computing methods to process and visualize data, to perform simulations for comparison with expensive or difficult experiments, to extend the reach of theory beyond accessible experimental ranges, and to mine results from large collections of complex data. The "Science Applications and Infrastructure in Clouds and Grids" workshop to be held in conjunction with Open Grid Forum's OGF 34 meetingwill address many of these important topics. 

Cyberinfrastructures and e-infrastructures are being used to carry out intensive computations and data processing in ways that support individual researchers, and also in ways that enable collaborations between researchers. In addition to traditional grid computing methods, clouds are increasingly being used to broaden and extend the range of tools used to meet demands for computing and data services. 

Previous workshops in this series, as described below, have been used to explore the high-performance range of cloud and grid applications and to discuss science agency uses of clouds and grids. The purpose of this workshop is to investigate cloud and grid framework software efforts and applications in greater detail, with focus on the following questions:

• What are the relative benefits of cloud vs. grid models?
• Are clouds and grids best used in conjunction with each other, or on their own?
• What sort of scientific applications are better suited to each model? Which run better on grids, and which on clouds? Are some areas of research better suited to each model than others?
• How does the difference between cost and support personnel considerations affect research, planning, and funding?
• How do trust and security issues and other constraints affect the uptake of cloud resources?
• What is missing at the cyber/einfrastructure layers, in the applications and supporting libraries, or in the funding models to improve the uptake of cloud resources?
• What is the role of private, community, hybrid and/or commercial cloud models in building frameworks to support scientific research?
• How can scientific research best make use of the work coming out of the existing cloud projects and related activities? What new projects along these lines should be pursued?
• What are the roles of standards bodies and interoperation projects in improving the uptake of research in the clouds? Can we improve on the situation?

We invite prospective participants to submit brief abstracts, on the order of one paragraph, on any of the related topics from the above list to the workshop organizers, and to request special topics for consideration if so inclined. We are also interested in presentations on forefront applications and/or framework infrastructures useful in clouds and grids in support of science application areas. These will be considered for acceptance for a short (order 20 to 30 minute) presentation at the workshop, to be followed up by an optional short position paper to be published in the workshop report. 

This workshop is a follow-on in the series started by two previous workshops on High Performance Applications of Cloud and Grid Tools held in April, 2011 and Science Agency Uses of Clouds and Grids held July, 2011. 

Deadline for submission of abstracts is Feb 24, 2012. 

Logistics:

The workshop will be free to attend but we ask you to register beforehand. It is expected that the workshop day will be scheduled for Thursday March 15, possibly extending to the morning of Friday 16th, depending on the number and quality of submissions. 

Sponsors:

Funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), supported by the e-Research centre at the University of Oxford (OeRC), and organised by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). We acknowledge the role of the US Department of Energy Office for Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Internet2 and the SIENA project in supporting previous workshops in this series. 

OGFSM, Open Grid ForumSM, Grid ForumSM, and the OGF Logo are trademarks of OGF.