BEinGRID

Project Background

ICT is evolving toward more widespread use of service-oriented software solutions and the use of private, public or hybrid cloud computing infrastructures. grid infrastructures still play a crucial role in this context by providing high-level services to the user (standard interfaces, security, reliability, optimal resource usage, etc.). The overall concept of grid is to take advantage of distributed resources connected through a network, presenting them as a coherent and scalable infrastructure in order to obtain access to a coordinated set of services

The project’s aims are: to understand the requirements for grid uptake in the commercial environment, involving software vendors, IT integrators, service providers and end users; and to enable and validate the adoption of grid technologies by business.
BEinGRID has undertaken 25 targeted Business Experiments (BEs) designed to implement grid solutions across a broad spectrum of European business sectors, in order to develop and deploy a critical mass of business-oriented pilots with different needs and requirements in terms of technological challenges.
Complementing this work, IT-Tude.com, a web portal dedicated to business use of cloud computing technologies, is now available. This portal contains up-to-date information and best practices to support European businesses with the adoption of these technologies.

CETIC key responsibilities

• Leading the first wave of 18 experiments, with 70 partners involved and a total effort of about 1100 person-months
• Leading dissemination activities
• Strong involvement in security analysis and business modelling work packages, and quality assessment of the project dissemination portal IT-Tude

Key Results

The project is reaching its conclusion, having fully achieved its original objectives, while taking market changes, like the transition from grid computing to cloud computing, into account.
The case studies resulting from BEinGRID’s 25 Business Experiments are collected in two booklets entitled “BEinGRID: Better Business Using Grid Solutions” and “Approaching the Cloud : Better Business Using Grid Solutions”. As dissemination leader, CETIC led the publication process and coordinated the editing of the content across the 25 business experiments. Part of the project’s dissemination activities included:
* developing a website;
* designing and producing marketing materials;
* distributing 15 press releases;
* dispatching 7 newsletters;
* organising promotion for 127 events;
* setting up 4 major events;
* producing over 300 articles and publications.
The project produced five “BEinGRID Demonstrators” – promotional materials describing the successful use of the grid within industry settings, from both business and technology perspectives. One was built on CETIC’s Business Experiment “Grid for Architects” – it explains how CETIC built a portal offering on-demand grid rendering services, which provided substantial cost-savings to their clients. The demo package contains a key story explaining the business benefits, a set of slides, and a video.
The outcomes of the technical and business transversal support activities have been published in two books: Service Oriented Infrastructures and Cloud Service Platforms for the Enterprise and Grid and Cloud Computing - A Business Perspective on Technology and Applications