Grid Computing in India

Think the future.! THE FUTURE LIES IN THE GRID                                 A computer science specialist from IIT Delhi, a professor in IISc Bangalore and an industrialist in Mumbai — these people from diverse fields can ask each other inter-disciplinary questions and get an answer in minutes. This is possible, thanks to India’s unique national computational grid — Garuda — a first-time innovation in the country powered by Bangalore’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).      Diverse researchers and specialists from 45 institutions, including industry, and spanning 17 cities have for the first time in the country been brought together on one national grid. This virtual grid is making possible sharing and exchanging of knowledge and data on a scale and in diverse ways not seen before between researchers and industry.      The department of information technology at the Centre has funded CDAC to deploy Garuda and take gridnetworked computing to research labs and industry. Subrata Chattopadhyay, chief investigator, Garuda, CDAC Bangalore, told TOI: “Garuda is India’s first national grid initiative bringing together academic, scientific and research communities for developing their data and compute intensive applications.’’      He explained: “The grid is maintained, connected and networked through the National Knowledge Network, vital to India’s development. A researcher from one lab can pose a query to another lab and the answer to that will be found in minutes if not a few hours. It used to take weeks together before to provide such information. We have developed a tool that can reach the relevant data fast for the query posed and give an answer to the researcher automatically on the grid itself. A software does the job of monitoring the query posed and the data given in response. The software works in a system located in a control room at Bangalore’s CDAC office.’’      He said: “Garuda is like inserting a charger into a socket in your house. You don’t worry about where the electricity is coming from, but the fact is it is coming to the centralised point. Likewise, the answer to a query posed by a researcher on the grid will come back automatically to the researcher who has to just access the grid and not worry about accessing any particular institution he has sought the answer from. Our software takes care of all that.”      The project’s ultimate aim is to unite stakeholders in science, technology, higher education, R&D and e-governance using network speeds of tens of gigabits per second coupled with extremely low latencies.      Chattopadhyay said the project cost around Rs 10-12 crore and was now in its operational phase. “The Proof of Concept (PoC) phase, initiated along with ERNET (Indian Education & Research Network), ended in March 2008, accomplished its deliverables by connecting 17 cities across 45 academic and research institutes countrywide along with the required software for managing grid computing applications,” Chattopadhyay said.      The establishment of Indian Grid Certification Authority for the first time in India by CDAC in November 2008 has allowed full access to worldwide grids for Indian researchers and is a landmark in this domain.  CDAC BANGALORE DEVELOPS NATIONAL COMPUTING GRID GARUDA, LINKING  45 INSTITUTIONS ACROSS 17 CITIES  CDAC - The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Institute of Plasma Research, Ahmedabad Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad Harish-Chandra Research Insititute, Allahabad Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), Bangalore Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai  Innovation: National computing grid called  Garuda Utility: Has brought 45 diverse research institutions, labs and industry spanning 17 cities into one virtual grid enabling them to exchange, share and analyse data in seconds, minutes, few hours. How it works: Garuda is a computing grid connected by internet and each institution wanting to part of the grid will have access codes. There are exclusive spaces for sharing data, posing questions, getting answers  Cost: Rs 10-12  crore for entire project  Designed by: Scientists led by  Subrata Chattopadhyay at CDAC Bangalore  OTHER FACTS ON GARUDA      Garuda computational grid works at a speed of 1 gigabit per second      It is connected through the National Knowledge Network, a virtual network covering the breadth of India      International research labs and institutions would also be able to access the grid once collaboration opens up.It runs on a Indiadeveloped software FAST FORWARD: The project’s aim is to unite stakeholders in science, technology, higher education, R&D and e-governance. Courtesy: TOI