Grid today, clouds on the horizon

By the time of CCP 2008, the largest scientific machine in the world – the Large Hadron Collider – had been cooled down as scheduled to its operational temperature of below 2 degrees Kelvin and injection tests were starting. Collisions of proton beams at 5+5 TeV were expected within one to two months of the initial tests, with data taking at design energy (7+7 TeV) foreseen for 2009. In order to process the data from this world machine, we have put our “Higgs in one basket” – that of Grid computing [The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), in: Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Physics 2006 (CCP 2006), vol. 177, 2007, pp. 219–223]. After many years of preparation, 2008 saw a final “Common Computing Readiness Challenge” (CCRC'08) – aimed at demonstrating full readiness for 2008 data taking, processing and analysis. By definition, this relied on a world-wide production Grid infrastructure. But change – as always – is on the horizon. The current funding model for Grids – which in Europe has been through 3 generations of EGEE projects, together with related projects in other parts of the world, including South America – is evolving towards a long-term, sustainable e-infrastructure, like the European Grid Initiative (EGI) [The European Grid Initiative Design Study, website at http://web.eu-egi.eu/]. At the same time, potentially new paradigms, such as that of “Cloud Computing” are emerging. This paper summarizes the results of CCRC'08 and discusses the potential impact of future Grid funding on both regional and international application communities. It contrasts Grid and Cloud computing models from both technical and sociological points of view. Finally, it discusses the requirements from production application communities, in terms of stability and continuity in the medium to long term.