Sigiri: uniform resource abstraction for grids and clouds

With the maturation of grid computing facilities and recent explosion of cloud computing data centers, midscale computational science has more options than ever before to satisfy computational needs. But heterogeneity brings complexity. We propose a simple abstraction for interaction with heterogeneous resource managers spanning grid and cloud computing and on features that make the tool useful for the midscale physical or natural scientist. Key strengths of the abstraction are its support for multiple standard job specification languages, preservation of direct user interaction with the service, removing the delay that can come through layers of services, and the predictable behavior under heavy loads. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.