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Layout of the interoperable components. The combination of middleware components, libraries, and frameworks that implement the interoperabilityprotocol and are able to call-out for a an authorization decision to an authorization service. Image courtesy of Oscar Koeroo, NIKHEF. (Click for larger image). |
"By speaking the same language, we no longer needed separate implementations of libraries for authorization," said Gabriele Garzoglio, a leader in the Interoperability Project who is based at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratoy. "We could now share functionalities between Globus, OSG, and EGEE, basing our software on a common code base."
The Interoperability Project provides several benefits, including the ability to seamlessly deploy programs written for one grid on a different grid.
"In the end, you have more freedom of choice on what solution you can install," said Koeroo. "After this project, middleware isn't bound to be installed on the grid infrastructure it was initially developed for. For example, in the case of dCache, parts were made by Brookhaven and others by Fermilab, and they were adjusted to work with any grid authorization system."
Another advantage of the new standards developed by the project is the ease with which users can now deploy software out of the box on a functioning grid; out of box software will naturally interface with the authorization system. Finally, maintenance for the standard set of libraries the project group developed can be shared, reducing costs.
Earlier work with OASIS' XACML Technical Committee set the standards for the common authorization language the Grid Authorization Interoperability Project used. Frank Siebenlist, a project member who also worked on the XACML Technical Committee, said, "We should all pat ourselves on the back. It just doesn't happen too often that different entities work so well together."
What next? A number of grids are working to integrate the new standards with their authorization system, according to Garzoglio. Meanwhile, the Open Grid Forum's own working group on authorization, which includes three people who worked on the Grid Authorization Interoperability Project, is working on developing a broader standard. "We have now come up with a standard that can be reused by the authorization working group at OGF as a working example of a way to handle authorization," explained Garzoglio. The hope is that OGF will adopt or build on the Project's standard.
A version of this story originally appeared in the August Open Science Grid technology highlights.
-Jen Nahn, with files from Miriam Boon
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