A growing interest in moving software applications, services, and even infrastructure resources from in-house premises to external providers has been witnessed recently. A survey conducted by F5 Networks between June and July 2009 1 showed that such a trend has now reached a critical mass; and an increasing number of IT managers have already adopted, or are considering adopting, this approach to implement IT operations. This model of making IT resources available, known as Cloud Computing [1], opens new opportunities to small, medium-sized, and large companies. It is not necessary anymore to bear considerable costs for maintaining the IT infrastructures or to plan for peak demand. Instead, infrastructure and applications can scale elastically according to the business needs at a reasonable price. The possibility of instantly reacting to the demand of customers without long-term planning is one of the most appealing features of cloud computing, and it has been a key factor in making this trend popular among technology and business practitioners.As a result of this growing interest, the major players in the IT industry such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Sun, and Yahoo have started offering cloudcomputing-based solutions that cover the entire IT computing stack, from hardware to applications and services. These offerings have become quickly
SUMMARYIn this paper, we present a Grid computing platform that provides experimental scientists and analysts with access to computational simulations and knowledge databases hosted in separate laboratories around the world involved with human and animal kidney research. No single laboratory can develop these resources in isolation, and the community of users should no longer need to be dependent upon the specific programming environment in which applications have been developed. This work aims at exploiting the power of high-bandwidth communications networks for collaborative research and for shared access to knowledge resources. This platform is developed within a specialist community of renal scientists but will be transferable to any other field of research requiring interaction between published literature and databases, theoretical models and simulations and the formulation of effective experimental design.
The Virtual Kidney uses a web interface and distributed computing to provide experimental scientists and analysts with access to computational simulations and knowledge databases hosted in geographically separated laboratories. Users can explore a variety of complex models without requiring the specific programming environment in which applications have been developed. This initiative exploits high-bandwidth communication networks for collaborative research and for shared access to knowledge resources. The Virtual Kidney has been developed within a specialist community of renal scientists but is transferable to other areas of research requiring interaction between published literature and databases, theoretical models and simulations and the formulation of effective experimental designs.A web-based three-dimensional interface provides access to experimental data, a parameter database and mathematical models. A multi-scale kidney reconstruction includes blood vessels and serially sectioned nephrons. Selection of structures provides links to the database, returning parameter values and extracts from the literature.Models are run locally or remotely with a Grid resource broker managing scheduling, monitoring and visualization of simulation results and application, credential and resource allocation. Simulation results are viewed graphically or as scaled colour gradients on the Virtual Kidney structures, allowing visual and quantitative appreciation of the effects of simulated parameter changes.
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