Tuesday, October 16, 2012

OSG Operations at the EGI Technical Forum


Reflecting on the European Grid Initiative Technical Forum which took place in Prague September 17-21, I am reminded of the maturity of the relationship that OSG Operations has with our European collaborators. We've had interoperating ticketing, information systems, topology, and monitoring tools for most of the life of the OSG project. We've recently added accounting to this list, and are now working on collaborating on communication and information dissemination efforts. Due to the diligent Operational effort on the parts of OSG, EGI, and WLCG, interoperability of these tools has become second nature.

I had the privilege of being accompanied by Bill Barnett, IUs Director of Science Community Tools, and introduce him to our EGI and WLCG Operational peers. Giving him a chance to understand some of the technical and logistical challenges facing OSG Operations when working with international collaborators.

I gave presentations on current Operational status, future Operational plans, and on OSG's plans for GLUE 2.0. While the current and future plans were in tune with EGI's and WLCG's direction, OSG is looking at new solutions for the information system and not immediately embracing the need for GLUE 2.0, unlike EGI Operations. Each presentation sparked welcome discussion and input from our EGI Collaborators. I was also asked to do an interview with Grid Talk  on the OSG and EGI Interoperability relationship, available at http://gridtalk-project.blogspot.com/2012/09/rob-quick-from-open-science-grid-on.html.



Bill and I were also able to meet with the iSGTW European Editors and work out some of the initial plans for the new iSGTW US based position that will be hired shortly. This new collaboration will sponsor a US Reporting Desk for iSGTW and will function as a satellite project to OSG.

Looking back at my presentations and several other presentations from our EGI and WLCG partners, the one idea that kept coming up in various fashions was how mature these relationships and tools have become over the several years I've been acting as the Operations Coordinator for OSG. This is due to continuous effort in the areas of evolution of services, change management, and constant communication. The effort of maintaining this ongoing relationship makes it possible to continue robust and reliable infrastructure services while expanding into new areas of collaboration.