Orlando tools: Energy research application development through convergence of grid and cloud computing

Abstract

The paper addresses the relevant problem related to the development of scientific applications (applied software packages) to solve large-scale problems in heterogeneous distributed computing environments that can include various infrastructures (clusters, Grid systems, clouds) and provide their integrated use. We propose a new approach to the development of applications for such environments. It is based on the integration of conceptual and modular programming. The application development is implemented with a special framework named Orlando Tools. In comparison to the known tools, used for the development and execution of distributed applications in the current practice, Orlando Tools provides executing application jobs in the integrated environment of virtual machines that include both the dedicated and non-dedicated resources. The distributed computing efficiency is improved through the multi-agent management. Experiments of solving the large-scale practical problems of energy security research show the effectiveness of the developed application for solving the aforementioned problem in the environment that supports the hybrid computational model including Grid and cloud computing.