The grid and future visualization system architectures

The promise of grid computing, particularly grid-enabled visualization, is a transparent, interconnected fabric to link data sources, computing (visualization) resources, and users into widely distributed virtual organizations. The grid's purpose is to tackle increasingly complex problems. However, a wide gulf exists between current visualization technologies and the vision of global, grid-enabled visualization capabilities. Here, we discuss our views of how visualization technology must evolve to offer true effectiveness in a grid environment.