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  Method and apparatus for grid enabling standard applicationsUSPTO Application #: 20070028247Title: Method and apparatus for grid enabling standard applications Abstract: Disclosed are a method of and system for adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols. The method comprises the steps of providing a profile of the computer program; and providing a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system using said one or more of said grid protocols. The profile is used to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system. (end of abstract) Agent: Scully Scott Murphy & Presser, PC - Garden City, NY, US Inventor: Peter P. Rodriguez USPTO Applicaton #: 20070028247 - Class: 719328000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Electrical Computers And Digital Processing Systems: Interprogram Communication Or Interprocess Communication (ipc), Application Program Interface (api) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070028247. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention generally relates to computer networks, and more particularly, the invention relates to the use of decentralized, collaborative networks having a grid infrastructure. Even more specifically, the invention relates to methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business wherein network-accessible services are provided in a decentralized network having a federated grid infrastructure. [0003] 1. Background Art [0004] An emerging trend in information technology in general, and in decentralized networks of the type provided by network service providers, is use of collaboration. This trend is evidenced by the level of investment in so-called "web services" and in the adoption of a number of open industry standards supporting web services. In general, the term "web service" refers to an interface that describes a collection of network-accessible operations. Web services technology is a mechanism for distributed application integration, and is also commonly refereed to as the "service-oriented architecture" for distributed computing. Web services fulfill a specific task or a set of tasks. They may work with one or more other web services in an interoperable manner to carry out their part of a complex workflow or a business transaction. For example, completing a complex purchase order transaction may require automated interaction between an order placement service (i.e., order placement software) at the ordering business and an order fulfillment service at one or more of its business partners. In turn, this order fulfillment service may interact with a credit card approval service, a package delivery service, and so forth. [0005] With increased use of collaborative networking, efficient techniques for resource sharing will become critical. Resource sharing is complicated in conventional distributed or decentralized networks by the heterogeneity that exists when using technologies such as web services. In recent years, the academic and scientific communities cooperated to develop the concept of "grid technology" for sharing their resources. A "grid" may be defined as a collection of distributed computing resources available over a local or wide area network that appear to an end user or application as one large virtual computing system. A primary objective of grid computing is to create virtual dynamic organizations through secure, coordinated resource-sharing among individuals, institutions and resources. Grid computing is an approach to distributed computing that spans not only locations but also organizations, machine architectures and soft-ware boundaries to provide unlimited power, collaboration and information access to everyone connected to a grid. [0006] Grid technology allows enterprises to share resources as they form "virtual organizations"--that is, the enterprises share their resources and services (which may be in geographically-widespread locations and which may have heterogeneous computing platforms) to form virtual computing services. (See "Grid Services for Distributed System Integration", I. Foster, et al., Computer, 35(6), 2002, for more information about grid technology. [0007] Today an architecture referred to as "Open Grid Services" is being developed by academic and scientific communities, along with commercial entities such as International Business Machines Corporation ("IBM@"), as an evolution of grid technology. This Open Grid Services architecture ("OGSA") enables a grid to provide enterprises with an extensible set of services that can be aggregated by the virtual organizations. According to OGSA, all computational resources, storage resources, networks, programs, databases, and so forth are modeled as services, providing a service-oriented view. OGSA leverages web services technology (and the open industry standards on which that technology is built) as well as grid technology. [0008] The OGSA work effort includes an evolution of a programmer's toolkit referred to a "Globus Toolkit", which is designed to make creation of grid-based applications easier. The Globus Toolkit defines a "grid runtime" as a set of services. This set of services includes: (1) a Grid Resource Allocation and Management ("GRAM") protocol and "gatekeeper" service, designed to provide secure, reliable service creation and management; (2) a Monitoring and Discovery Service ("MDS-2") for information discovery; and (3) a Grid Security Infrastructure for single sign-on, delegation, and credential mapping. [0009] One of the largest challenges in moving to a distributed architecture--such as a Service Oriented Architecture, is the idea that applications must be Architected, Designed, and Developed specifically with the architecture in mind. This is especially true for CORBA/J2EE architectures--as well as Web Services based architectures. [0010] In order to move an enterprise architecture to the GRID, after the design and infrastructure and even core services are provided via a GRID infrastructure, the challenge still remains to migrate a significant portion of the applications, programs, and services into the new paradigm. The migration effort typically means that applications must be rewritten with the GRID in mind. This includes but is not limited to the following for each application: [0011] 1) Redesign of the architecture to take advantage of a GRID computing platform. <Very Difficult> in some cases impossible without a wholesale re-engineering of the way the application works. [0012] 2) Refactoring and/or new development to access the GRID libraries, in our case OGSA development suite. [0013] 3) Design and performance testing. [0014] 4) Deployment. [0015] Given that there are many applications in a typical Intranet, for large Intranets, thousands, the cost and effort to migrate to a GRID based strategy for even a few key applications can be enormous. Add to that the immaturity of the GRID infrastructure, API's and protocol, and the cost and time becomes prohibitive to do anything more than perhaps a few isolated applications as proof of concept or prototypes. [0016] There, thus, clearly is a need for mechanisms and procedures to facilitate the adoption of current computer applications for use in a collaborative network having a grid infrastructure. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0017] An object of this invention is to help adapt current running applications to make use of the grid based system. [0018] Another object of the invention is to help enable currently running applications to realize the distributed grid resources without having to re-design or re-code those applications. [0019] A further object of the present invention is to provide an adapter element that allows applications built for traditional environments to run in a grid environment. [0020] These and other objectives are attained with a method of and system for adapting a computer program to make use of a grid based system of resources, said grid based system using a given set of grid protocols. The method comprises the steps of providing a profile of the computer program; and providing a grid adapter including a series of application program interfaces (APIs) for interfacing said computer program to the grid based system using said one or more of said grid protocols. The profile is used to select one or more of the APIs to interface said computer program with one or more of the resources of the grid based system. [0021] The preferred embodiment of the invention, described below in detail, provides a grid adapter that can be use to grid enable any given application without incurring the cost of redesign and redevelopment. In some cases using a GRID adapter may not be the most efficient way to GRID enable an application, however the low cost to do the enablement will provide a simple, cost effective path for moving apps to the GRID. Since technology associated with the GRID is in a fast paced changing environment, in many cases, GRID adapters may be the best and only solution that can be considered from a business standpoint--if long term adaptability is desired. [0022] Using GRID adapters, combined with the GRID profiling technology (filed in a separate disclosure), at minimum represents an effective way to move traditional applications--to a distributed GRID infrastructure, and to better understand the requirements of the applications in place in any given environment. [0023] Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0024] FIG. 1 illustrates a grid service according to the OSGA of the prior art. [0025] FIGS. 2A-2C show how virtual organizations may be structured using a grid service infrastructure according to the prior art. Continue reading... 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