Sun Microsystems has donated to the open-source Grid Engine Project its Grid Engine Portal software, which is designed to let users access resources and applications on a Sun-based computing grid from virtually any Web browser.
The portal software, which had been in beta testing, relies on the Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) Portal Server software as well as the company"s Grid Engine software, said Sun spokeswoman Michelle Parkinson. A message posted Thursday on the Grid Engine Project"s Web site (https://gridengine.sunsource.net) announced it is available as Java source code from the site.
Computing grid systems can link many computers in a data center, campus or research facility and distribute computing work among them. Sun"s Grid Engine software can be used to set up and manage a grid, and the Grid Engine Portal lets users take advantage of it from any location where they have a browser, either inside or outside a firewall. For example, they could execute an application, download or upload data and monitor the status of a computing job through the browser. In addition to mobility, browser-based access provides an easy-to-use interface to the grid.
Sun, based in Santa Clara, California, sponsors the Grid Engine Project, which was founded in July 2001, and has made its Grid Engine software available free since that time via download from https://gridengine.sunsource.net. Because the software is available on an open-source basis, developers can port it to other operating systems, Parkinson said.