The NetSolve environment: progressing towards the seamless grid

The NetSolve software project has matured into a robust system that reliably manages and interconnects disparate computational resources. Resource management and allocation policies, heterogeneity, fault-tolerance and security are some of the issues that need to be resolved in such environments. This article is meant to introduce the reader to the NetSolve system and offers a discussion of some of the key developments that have taken place in the project during recent months. To make the article coherent and somewhat self-contained, brief insight is given into some of the more fundamental aspects of NetSolve; the newer features and enhancements are given a more detailed discussion. For completion, there is a discussion of successful uses and integrations of the NetSolve system.