In the column of things that are not cloud computing, the new Globus toolkit was released today. Highlights of this release include:

Persistent HTTP/S connection support in Java WS Core
Dynamic deployment support in Java WS Core
JBOSS 4.0.x support in Java WS Core
An implementation of WS-ServiceGroup added to C WS Core
C command-line tools for WSRF operations
Support for GetResourceProperties and QueryResourceProperties in the Delegation Service
Added support for the OGSA-AuthZ Authorization Service to CAS
Server-side attribute-based authorization framework enhancements
Support for a pluggable Policy Decision Point (PDP) designed to minimize common authorization errors
Enhanced security descriptor framework
A Web service interface for the Replica Location Service (RLS)
Improved support for multiple TriggerRules in the Trigger Service
Improved configuration interface for the Trigger Service
Java API to assist in creating resource properties from external information sources
A new resource manager (RM) adapter API in GRAM4

One item of note is the web service interface for the Replica Location Service (RLS).

With the advent of cloud computing models I’m increasingly frustrated by the direction of efforts like this. I understand the need for security models and tools for managing and processing across geographically distant topologies and authority domains. I understand that ‘grids’ and ‘cloud services’ are quite different ideas. I’m not convinced anyone would choose to use a grid, specifically the Globus toolkit, unless it was mandated by their research community and/or funding agency. (See caBIG.) That and the fundamental reliance of a high-performance distributed processing environment on JAVA is baffling. The overhead of this environment is immense and doesn’t appear to be slowing.

The threshold is too high. It simply isn’t worth the effort or supporting infrastructure to deploy a simple set of services for most research communities. RESTful services solve most of these problems with familiar and supported protocols, without the overhead.

(See also: Globus Toolkit 4.2 Released)
(See also: GLOBUS: release notes)
(See also: GLOBUS: software(See also: GLOBUS: documentation))

(See also: caBIG)

(See also: Dissertation: Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures)