GCJ: Let's start of with the OGF, how the merger happened, and where you are now?

Linesch: I think that the merger happened because it just makes sense. In other words, it just makes sense to continue to look for ways in which to bring the grid community together, and focus on accelerating adoption. During October of 2005, we began more formal discussions and outlined a three-phase process. Phase one established our overall merger framework and led to the signing of a non-binding letter of intent. During Phase two, the separate GGF and EGA organizations began the merger transition - establishing joint teams to develop detailed plans to become one organization. This culminated in the June 2006 announcement of a definitive merger agreement and our intent to incorporate under a new name - Open Grid Forum. Now that we are one organization, we are completing Phase three of the merger - spending the summer months on the merger integration including (1) finalizing the board and day-to-day operational leadership; (2) transitioning existing members and recruiting new members to the new organization; (3) developing and fine-tuning our plans and priorities so that the new organization can hit the ground running. We will formally launch OGF during GridWorld/GGF18 in Washington, D.C., September 11-14.

GCJ: Has the merger caused any slowdown in the work that either GGF or EGA were pursuing?

Linesch: While mergers can be a little distracting, I think we were successful in continuing to move the work forward aggressively. We created a process that would allow most of the organization to continue on and get the work done, while in the background we were fine-tuning the plans and working through the merger process. Now, it clearly takes a significant amount of my time, and a significant amount of several other people's time within the former GGF and EGA. However, from the start our objective has been to NOT slow down our group activities. We've kept the existing GGF and EGA leadership in place to help facilitate progress and most, if not all, will continue their leadership service in the new organization. We have continued all technical work and hope to experience little, if any, disruption to group activities.

GCJ: So from a perspective of the two organizations, EGA - I'll oversimplify - kind of the commercial enterprise side, GGF the research side. And one of the ongoing arguments, if you will, is grid computing is still academic research and making the jump from e-science to commercial has been very difficult, and there's been some recent writings on that. What's your take on that, and the combination obviously implies that you've got both entities together under one leadership and that's going to help over time. I'd like to get your take on it, what you see as a vision.

Linesch: I often think that statements such as "GGF does research, EGA does enterprise" or "grids are having difficulty making the jump from eScience to eBusiness" often oversimplify. Emerging technologies take time to mature and become suitable for different types of applications. All emerging applications and technologies start someplace, and grids started in high-performance computing and have continued to evolve and grow into the broader IT environment. GGF started in research because that's where grids were being adopted in the early days and this is still a critical area of focus for us moving forward. As grids technologies and solutions matured, GGF began supporting enterprise-related applications in key industries such as Pharma, Financial and Telco. EGA set their sights on enterprise data centers.

I often talk about the 3 phases of grid adoption: the early adopters, then moving to a proven solution phase, and then finally to more pervasive adoption. And it's clear that the scientific and engineering communities were first out of the gate and provided a foundation for early adoption and proven solutions that the broader industry can build upon. It's also true that in some of the enterprise areas that are closely associated with high-performance computing (Finance, Pharma, Manufacturing, etc.) we are starting to see increased adoption of grid and grid-related solutions such as virtualization and service orientation. We are also seeing the concept of grids moving from specific departments or functions within the enterprise, to the broader IT data center environment. I think this progression is very natural and predictable as grids "cross the chasm" from specialized applications to the broader IT environment. What is not predictable is the timing of this technology diffusion and adoption. Grid architectures, technologies and solutions have demonstrated real scientific and business value and will continue to evolve and mature. We can accelerate adoption by bringing everyone around the same table to share best practices and define software standards that lead to interoperability and pervasive adoption. I think the formation of the OGF marks another milestone in our journey together. I am excited about our potential and encouraged by the support the community has demonstrated. Together we have a great opportunity to deliver results and accelerate adoption.

GCJ: Your thoughts on the whole virtualization/automation/service orientation direction and how this competes or compliments grid?

Linesch: I believe that the industry is on a journey toward a new world of distributed computing. The technologies you mentioned are "fellow travelers" on this journey. Virtualization and automation of IT processes are mature concepts that are now being utilized in data centers around the world to lower costs and increase utilization rates. Service orientation is a powerful evolution to existing distributed computing concepts and will enable the creation of a more modular and flexible IT environment and the management of this environment in service to the business. All three of those concepts deliver great value as standalone technologies. When you put them together into a grid solution, they can deliver very powerful benefits for users.

I think some pundits like to write about these technologies as if they are in competition with each other. But grids are enabled by virtualization, automation and service-orientation technologies; they also integrate these technologies into a solution - particularly across functional and organizational boundaries. I think the winner is going to be the customer. We need to push through that hype, and focus on the value. And there's no doubt that grid and related technologies deliver real value for scientists, engineers, and businesses of all sizes. I look forward to the industry moving beyond the "dogma" and focusing on how to replicate and extend this value. This is why we have joined with IDG and Globus to produce events such as GridWorld that can showcase solutions and provide a forum for the industry to continue to share and discuss the evolution of these important technologies and solutions.

GCJ: And then the next question that I guess goes in line on this is the whole notion of standards, and using standards to progress adoption. Your thoughts on standards, adoption and OGF's role?

Linesch: Grids are built a grid at a time - in other words, they need to be built for specific users to deliver a defined set of benefits. Today, organizations can adopt grid solutions and achieve significant benefits even without having all the standards in place for interoperability. This is particularly true for organizations running the same version of one of the popular grid middleware software products. However, interoperability becomes more critical as organizations connect grids to other grids within their organizations or with other organizations that utilize different grid middleware software. For those grids to come together and interoperate, they need to speak the same language. Questions start to arise such as, "Wouldn't it be great if my London data center and my Chicago data center and my Palo Alto data center could actually share resources? How do I describe a job, how do I execute a job, how do I manage a job, how do I authenticate my users, and how do I access of and move data? And these interoperability questions become more tangible and interesting as organizations gain experience and branch out beyond the four walls of their department, division or organization to collaborate, to integrate and analyze data or to share scarce resources.

Regarding OGF's role, I think as grid solutions become more widely adopted and the need for interoperability increases, the entire industry has a role in creating a clearer sense of direction and urgency in accelerating grid and distributed computing standards adoption. OGF must focus our standardization efforts and clearly articulate practical, near term priorities. We must communicate more clearly and collaborate more effectively while obtaining active participation from key industry experts. The broader distributed computing community must continue to make progress on the foundational Web services standards upon which many of our specifications are based. The vendor and open source community must productively engage in the open standards process and adopt the specifications that enable software interoperability. Finally, end users need to encourage vendors to deliver software based on industry standards and to provide support for new software licensing models. It's quite a task and OGF cannot do this alone - it does take a "community" environment.

GCJ: I loved the line; grids are built one grid at a time...

Linesch: Thanks! I think that our industry is great at envisioning a future destination but sometimes forgets that "the journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step". I often say that grids are a core part of the next stage of distributed computing, and it's important that they look for specific problems that they might solve with grid today. Then start small. Let the infectious nature of grids lead to additional applications and solutions.

A great application is being able to harness CPUs within a single data center to reduce the time it takes to do risk analysis from four hours to 40 minutes. An even better application is when I have three data centers, and I can not only reduce the time, but I can dynamically allocate resources to run more instances and improve the quality AND timeliness of the information while increasing utilization rates and lowering costs. At each step, I am building on the successes and failures of the previous step - improving the security and reliability, honing the value of the application to the organization and users.

I particularly like the ability of grids to bring together information and resources to change the very nature of how we attack problems. I was in Taiwan recently where collaboration between the government, medical and commercial organizations is delivering better care to asthma patients and better information for improved treatment and prevention. Using an advanced data grid and an interface to asthma patients through wireless phone technology, the physician is able to engage with patients in a more real-time manner. Bringing together weather, environmental, drug and protocol information enables better patient care immediately but also has the potential to provide valuable information exchange with other public and private health care organizations for future disease prevention and improved drug and treatment alternatives.

Now, that is an interesting grid solution that changes the game for patients, providers and policy makers. And you won't successfully implement that type of solution overnight. It takes concepts like "virtualization, automation and service orientation" integrated into a grid solution to deliver the value.

So I think there's a vast array, if you will, of interesting solutions, from one grid/one application/one data center to a much more sophisticated interaction between organizations that delivers in the case of the Twain example personalized medicine that can impact patient care and the cost of that care.

And I encourage people to really start small, to think about solving a specific solution with a grid, and then let that infectious nature of grid solutions take hold. Because you'll find other applications, and you'll start down that journey of more sophisticated and, quite frankly, more integrated approaches to some of the problem that you have.

GCJ: Do you want to talk to some of the upcoming news regarding OGF?

Linesch: Yes, I first want to thank the global grid community for the support and encouragement they have shown since announcing our plans to merge. The merger provides the opportunity to bring everyone together to focus on grid adoption and practical results. At GridWorld, the community will be introduced to the new Open Grid Forum including our newly appointed board members, operational leadership team, organizational structure, directions and priorities. Participants will also have access to great program lineup during the four-day event, including sessions on grid solutions, technologies and standards for enterprise IT professionals and the Globus and OGF communities. For more information or to register go to: www.ogf.org.

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