Grid interoperability: the interoperations cookbook

Over recent years a number of grid projects have emerged which have built grid infrastructures that are now the computing backbones for various user communities. A significant number of these communities are limited to one grid infrastructure due to the different middleware and procedures used in each grid. Grid interoperation is trying to bridge these differences and enable virtual organizations to access resources independent of the grid project affiliation. This paper gives an overview of grid interoperation and describes the current methods used to bridge the differences between grids. Actual use cases encountered during the last three years are discussed and the most important interfaces required for interoperability are highlighted. A summary of the standardisation efforts in these areas is given and we argue for moving more aggressively towards standards.