GridSpeed: a Web-based grid portal generation server

GridSpeed is a grid portal hosting server that automatically generates and publishes a customized Web interface to the grid for applications, with minimal effort required from the user. Users need only to specify information regarding their application using simple GridSpeed Web forms. With GridSpeed, users need not make any modifications to their applications nor write any glue code to publish the application on the Web, not requiring any knowledge of Perl, JSP (Java server pages) or Java servlets. Moreover, the portal generated by GridSpeed provides an application frontend as well as a set of fundamental portal services such as an information service, monitoring service, data management, single sign-on, and so forth. GridSpeed publishes a set of portals as grid services themselves generated by the system that is shamble, searchable, and accessible from others interested in using the application. This feature facilitates the reuse of application portals for specific application domains, as well as increases the number of available grid applications accessible on the Web. This work describes an overview and architecture of the GridSpeed system, and evaluates the system for two real-world scientific applications: BLAST and MCell.