Virtual EZ Grid

Virtual EZ Grid is an applied research project funded by AAA/Switch that aims at building desktop Grid platforms for medical applications.

The main objectives of this project are fourfold:

• Construct a desktop Grid infrastructure with over 1,000 non-dedicated desktop PCs to provide harvested CPU power for scientific research projects.
• Implement a reliable platform by using virtual environments to support secure computing and remote check-pointing. By using Wake-On-LAN technology, this project will also provide a better control over environmental issues and energy consumption by (i) running only the necessary PCs and (ii) shutting down unused PCs at night and during holidays. The proposed platform should give a non-intrusive experience to the PC users.
• Guarantee the security and privacy of both the PC user and the virtual CPU environment by using the virtual isolation layer property, certificate and proper authentication of Grid user.
• Provide a resource-credit system prototype. The goal is to evaluate different resource-credit schemes that could be established and to determine the relevant criteria that should be used to devise a “fair” incentive, taking into account the point of views of providers and consumers of virtual PC resources.

The proposed approach will be validated by two medical applications.