Strategy Proposal

1. Strategy Proposal Heinz Stockinger on behalf of the Executive Board SwiNG Assembly Meeting Berne, 23 June 2008

2. Introduction • First Strategy Proposal was presented and discussed at previous Assembly meeting in Jan. 2008 • Updated version from 16 June 2008 based on • Feedback from previous meeting • Personal meetings with several Assembly members • Feedback from the Scientific Council

3. Contents of the Strategy Proposal • Mission Statements • 5 Strategic Goals • Roadmap • Lists specific steps that implement the strategic goals. • New: We distinguish between short term (2008/09), medium term (2010/11) and long term (2012 and beyond) priorities.

4. Mission Statement • Ensure competitiveness of Swiss science, education and industry by creating value through resource sharing. • Establish and coordinate a sustainable Swiss Grid Infrastructure as a dynamic network of resources across different locations and administrative domains. • Provide a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration to leverage the Swiss Grid activities, supporting end-users, researchers, education centers, resource providers and industry. • Represent the interests of the national Grid community towards other national and international bodies.

5. Contents of the Strategy Proposal • Mission Statements • 5 Strategic Goals • Grid apps and user communities • Grid infrastructure • Swiss National Grid Initiative • Funding • Education and Outreach • Roadmap

6. Strategic Goals (1) • 1. Successfully run Grid Applications from different scientific domains • SwiNG is a science and application driven association. It aims to enable end-to-end solutions providing added value to Swiss scientists from several scientific domains through active collaboration. This means running applications and solving problems that would benefit from a Grid Infrastructure.

7. Strategic Goals (2) • 2. Coordinate the establishment, enhancement and maintenance of core Grid resources • Applications need a suitable Grid infrastructure that provides the necessary hardware and software environment. The Grid infrastructure is built by connecting resources at the member institutions through Grid middleware and application specific services. SwiNG will co-ordinate the establishment, enhancement and maintenance of Grid resources and formulate suitable global policies and rules while respecting local site autonomies.

8. Open questions • What are the main functions/responsibilities of SwiNG? • Should SwiNG act as co-ordinator only? • Should SwiNG be able to receive funds? • Should funds be channelled to member institutions? • Should SwiNG be able to hire people? • If yes, what is the time frame? (now? in two years? in four years?) • Business case for SwiNG in general • Possibility to create a task force on “structure & funding” • See also Roadmap (4 Funding - medium term) • Industry involvement • Possibility to create a task force that deals with these strategic matters • See also Roadmap (5 Outreach - medium term)

9. Strategic Goals (3) • 3. Establish SwiNG as the Swiss National Grid Initiative (NGI) and obtain official representation for Swiss Grid interests in established national and international bodies • As a legal entity, SwiNG acts as theNational Grid Initiative with the mandate to represent Switzerland in national as well as international bodies, forums etc. In other words, SwiNG aims to represent Swiss interests in the Grid domain.

10. Strategic Goals (4) • 4. Establish sustainablefunding for SwiNG • Experience from related efforts shows that SwiNG cannot rely on voluntary contributions, but needs dedicated funding to maintain its activities. In the long term, SwiNG aims for sustainable funding from member institutions, user communities, governmental and other bodies. In short term, funding will have to come directly from member institutions, individual projects, and through other regional, national and international sources.

11. Strategic Goals (5) • 5. Establish and run education and outreach activities • The overall goal is to build a Swiss Grid user community. In order to do so, Grid knowledge needs to be established and transferred to user, developer, provider and supporter communities in form of tutorials, seminars, lectures etc. Dissemination activities should address primarily the scientific communities, and also extend to industry and the general public. Synergies and coordination with member institutions will be used.

12. Contents of the Strategy Proposal • Mission Statements • 5 Strategic Goals • Roadmap • We distinguish between short term (2008/09), medium term (2010/11) and long term (2012 and beyond) priorities.

13. 1. Grid applications and scient. user communities • Short term • Identify, realize and advertise two or more highly visible (research) application projects that particularly benefit from Grid computing. • Establish Virtual Organizations (VO) to support applications from two or more different domains. • Provide exchange forums for different Grid user communities. • Medium term • Collect application requirements from user communities for a sustainable Swiss Grid infrastructure. • Enable the infrastructure to host a variety of Grid applications that promote Swiss science. • Identify applications suitable for Grid computing and provide support for porting new applications to the Grid. • Realize research projects in a collaborative way but not independent of the institutions. • Long term • Call for additional application proposals from the scientific user community when funding is available and a basic Grid infrastructure has been set up and tested.

14. 2. Grid Infrastructure (1) • Short term • Set up a Swiss Grid infrastructure thatmakes use of existing resources while the sites and resource providers maintain their administrative autonomies. • Start from previous or existing projects such as Seed, Swiss Bio Grid, EGEE etc. and extend the usage beyond the current project lifetimes and scientific domains. • Link local resources via selected Grid middleware solutions, by leveraging existing solutions. • Create a forumforinformation exchange to share information on infrastructure and middleware services. • Create and maintain a resource inventory about existing systems and services at member institutions. • Promote campus Grids at member institutions. • Promote computer science research in the Grid domain. • Learn from the experience of other Grid projects and NGIs in setting up Grid infrastructures. • Provide validation tools for Grid services being deployed on the infrastructure and enable site functional testing.

15. 2. Grid Infrastructure (2) • Medium term • Enhance and add new functionality beyond current middleware solutions to meet community needs, and promote further research in this area. • Develop best practice guidelines and standards for institutional Grid resources and corresponding services at member sites and promote their establishment. • Define globalpolicies and rules of usage (trust, security, reliability, usage, resource allocation etc.) to develop a Grid economy, for example by setting up a Service Level Agreement (SLA), Acceptable Use Policy etc. • Evaluate, select and deploy accounting solutions for resources. • Set up mechanisms for user, VO and site support. • Long term • Establish common Swiss-wide Grid access comparable to the SWITCH AAI services to provide access to regular and special purpose resources like HPC, data storage, instruments etc. • Integrate the Swiss Grid infrastructure with international efforts such as EGI etc.

16. 3. Official representation and being the Swiss National Grid Initiative NGI • Short term • Define SwiNG’s internal and external organizational structure and interactions, relating to models from other NGIs and similar organizations. • Propose SwiNG for representation in the European Grid Initiative EGI, e-Infrastructure Reflection Group e-IRG, and similar organizations. Approach existing representatives if they would continue their work within the auspices of SwiNG. • Initiate official contacts to other national and international organizations, associations, and bodies from science, business, politics and society. • Medium term • Define duties and responsibilities of SwiNG as the NGI in coordination with the member institutions and with EGI, e-IRG and similar organizations. • Prepare SwiNG to be able to act as a member in national and international projects, channeling funding to its member institutions. • Long term • Develop a model for the involvement of industry in SwiNG.

17. 4. Funding • Short term • Initiate Grid projects within Switzerland submitted by the SwiNG member institutions, through coordinated requests for funding (e.g. AAA/SWITCH, SNF, EU-FP7). • Contact relevant persons in funding organizations (e.g. SNF) and the Swiss government (e.g. SBF, KTI), and discuss with them funding possibilities for SwiNG. • Apply for medium-term funding for SwiNG activities. • Follow-up on the development of the HPCN program, and secure the funding and realization of the Grid-related parts through SwiNG. • Medium term • Develop a consistent business case for SwiNG. • Prepare and submit one or more proposals requesting long-term funding for core SwiNG activities. • Long term • Develop concepts to receive funding from companies (e.g. industry projects, sponsoring, membership) and explore possibilities to commercialize certain SwiNG services in the long term. • Secure sustainable funding for SwiNG.

18. 5. Education and outreach (1) • Short term • Promote SwiNG and Grid usage at member institutions. • Use various means to advertise SwiNG, for example through the Web site, flyers, presentations, press releases, the announce mailing list, booths at events etc. Send delegates to relevant conferences and events. • Establish contacts to important stakeholders from academia, government, and industry, employing existing networks of Assembly, Scientific Council, and Executive Board members to promote SwiNG. • Implement a knowledge base for the Grid projects in Switzerland by creating a project inventory. • Organize internal and public SwiNG events, for example a yearly Swiss Grid Day, Swiss Grid School, workshops at individual institutions or for certain scientific communities, a Grid seminar series or conference etc. • Develop and maintain a corporate identity.

19. 5. Education and outreach (2) • Medium term • Direct education and training efforts both towards scientific usage as well as technology development. • Encourage the publication of SwiNG results in research journals, and ask authors to acknowledge the use of SwiNG resources. • Investigate and evaluate business cases with industry. • Long term • Develop standardized SwiNG lecture materials, and advocate the establishment and accreditation of Grid courses at the member institutions. • Establish Grid technology as standard means for accessing computer resources at Swiss academic institutions.