The role of scientific middleware in the future of HEP computing

<!--HTML-->In the 18 months since the CHEP03 meeting in San Diego, the HEP community deployed the current generation of grid technologies in a veracity of settings. Legacy software as well as recently developed applications was interfaced with middleware tools to deliver end-to-end capabilities to HEP experiments in different stages of their life cycles. In a series of data challenges, reprocessing efforts and data distribution activities the community demonstrated the benefits distributed computing can offer and the power a range of middleware tools can deliver. After running millions of jobs, moving tera-bytes of data, creating millions of files and resolving hundreds of bug reports, the community also exposed the limitations of these middleware tools. As we move to the next level of challenges, requirements and expectations, we must also examine the methods and procedures we employ to develop, implement and maintain our common suite of middleware tools. The talk will focus on the role common middleware developed by the scientific community can and should play in the software stack of current and future HEP experiments.