Prof. David Britton GridPP Project leader University of Glasgow

1. GridPP28 UK Operations Special Prof. David BrittonGridPP Project leader University of Glasgow GridPP28 17thApr 2012 IET, Oct 09

2. Money Madness Since GridPP27 we have spent the first tranche of GridPP4 Tier-2 Hardware money (£1m) and the e-infrastructure (DRI) money (£3m). Our ability to divide-up and spend £3m of DRI money on a complex project involving hundreds of purchases across 19 institutes with only a single (£14k) hick-up was very impressive and reflects well on our cohesion, organisation, and effectiveness. This was a lot of work: Well done and thank you! Most/all sites have managed to establish impressive networks infrastructures that will last for many years. GridPP28

3. Victim of Success The phenomenal performance of the the LHC and the experiments means that the latter are increasing their resource requests for future years. Trigger rates are being increased and a strategy of “data-parking” is being adopted. Unfortunately, GridPP has a fixed funding envelope, which must provision resources up to, and including, 2015. In addition, STFC have decided to continue support for ALICE beyond 2012 and have requested GridPPto do the same (within our existing funding). So clearly a “bit of a hole” at this point, but many uncertainties and possibilities that will be managed/explored. GridPP28

4. Next Grants The next (financial) task will be to issue the second half of the university manpower grants via the JeS system. We hope to be able to fund the full 2-years remaining (April-2013 to 2015) – previously thought me might need to save a month/post – Will confirm this (or not) in the next few weeks. The 2nd tranche of the Tier-2 HW grants will be issued in 2013. There will be about £1.6m (c.f. £1m in tranche-1) but increase in LHC resource requests mean that this will not cover all that is needed for 2015. GridPP28

5. Business as Usual The UK continues to deliver – although the accounting portal makes it harder and harder to see it! Normalised CPU delivered to LHC VOs by region; Apr-11 to Mar-12 GridPP28

6. Tier-1 Contributions GridPP28

7. Tier-2 Contributions GridPP28

8. National Effort GridPP28

9. Next Insert Time-Line Picture here It has only been in the last year that we can really say that we have achieved what we have been striving towards for the last decade: The LHC is producing data and we have a built a Grid that is comfortably handling the data deluge – and delivering the physics far quicker than was dreamt. GridPP28

10. Evolution-I Tier-structure for wLCG designed in the late 90’s assumed 600Mbps links. Today’s multi-Gigabit links enable a more flexible and robust architecture. May increase complexity. Maximum Sustained Bandwidth Maximum Sustained Bandwidth Density of storage New CPU architectures require more application development in order to exploit the increase in computing capacity. This is a challenge for legacy code. Although storage density continues to increase it is getting more difficult to use, which puts demands on the architecture and applications, increasing the complexity.

11. Evolution-II Your Program Your Program Grid Grid MIDDLEWARE MIDDLEWARE User Interface Machine User Interface Machine Resource Broker Resource Broker Information Service Information Service Replica Catalogue Replica Catalogue Bookkeeping Service Bookkeeping Service CPU Cluster CPU Cluster CPU Cluster CPU Cluster CPU Cluster CPU Cluster Disk Server Disk Server Too much middleware actually resides in the application-layer and is unique to an individual user group (virtual organisation). In addition, there are multiple middleware stacks (gLite; ARC, Unicore, etc) used by different user groups. Some degree of rationalisation and consolidation is required - this is a natural part of the process when working in a development environment.

12. Evolution-III The boundary between web and Grid has become blurred as Grid ideas are taken up. The web is becoming much more machine-readable; data movement is becoming more automated and more extensive as bandwidth improvements enable new services. The Grid is also about collaboration: This is somewhat different in the commercial world where partners tend not to share internal infrastructure but do out-source to a third-party. So we’ve seen the growth of “Cloud Computing”. Again, the boundaries are becoming blurred with Grids of Clouds and Clouds of Grids likely in the future.

13. Helix Nebula GridPP28

14. Beyond GridPP4? What are our assets? It’s not really the hardware - it’s the people and expertise. The whole needs to be more than the sum of the parts. Although the successful operation of individual sites is necessary, it is not sufficient. We (increasingly/continuously) need to demonstrate operations on a national basis as a key asset. This is the focus of this meeting: Blue-print the “value-added” by having a GridPP project. GridPP28

15. NGI How does the NGI fit in? NGS++ funding is not yet signed off. NGI is a coalition between GridPP and NGS(++). My personal view is that we want to preserve GridPP as an independent identity focused on the needs of HEP. At the same time it makes sense to do things in common when applicable. Although GridPP focus is HEP, it is beneficial to show relevance in other arena, where and when possible. There are risks and opportunities to manage and exploit. GridPP28

16. Vision Over the next 2 years we will have some growth in GridPP user-base as we seed and support new VOs – perhaps some will even contribute resources - but we should maintain a tenacious focus on the LHC. In 2 years time, we will have submitted a proposal for 2015+, which must be based on value-for-money arguments. We will have clearly been able to demonstrate the value of GridPP…… that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The UK operations will be a key component of this. We hope, by that time, the NGS funding is secured and we managed to maintain a light-weight partnership as a UK NGI to address the areas outside GridPP’s direct mandate. GridPP28