EMI Collaboration Programs

Works with EMI

The Works with EMI program is a managed collaboration program dedicated to software providers developing applications making use of EMI middleware services or producing additional middleware or distributed computing services extending or complementing the functionality of the EMI services.

The goal of this collaboration program is to establish technical relationships of mutual benefit for EMI and relevant development projects. On one hand, software providers participating in the ‘Works with EMI’ program have access to technical previews of new or modified EMI services early in their development lifecycle, dedicated support channels and joint dissemination and training activities. On the other hand, EMI receives early feedback on its services and requirements to extend and improve their functionality. Together EMI and interested technical partners make sure that the user experience when using applications or services based on EMI is coherent and consistent.

The program builds on the successful EGEE RESPECT program , with a more formal set of commitments and a mutual technical collaboration aspect. Technical partners joining the program must commit to adhere to the quality levels EMI strives to achieve during its development process. In Technical partners must also implement a certification process able to document the level of testing performed. Access to the EMI software engineering platform and certification testbeds in order to perform tests in the same environment where EMI itself is developed and tested is available to technical partners, if required.

The list of technical partners and their software products complying with the ‘Works with EMI’ are published on the EMI web site and can use the EMI web site to advertise their products and achievements within the scope of this collaboration program. These products will be tagged with the ‘Works with EMI’ logo, as testament to the products’ adherence to EMI quality metrics and certification process.

The collaboration is based on the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding between EMI and the technical partner joining the program. The MoU, which specifies the framework of collaboration between EMI and the technical partner, includes the joint work plan, benefits for the parties involved, roles, responsibilities and timeline of collaboration.

In addition to the MoU, the Work with EMI program foresees the signature of an Operational Level Agreement in case the program partner decides to distribute software as part of the EMI distributions. The OLA ensures that the contributors provide the same service levels to customer and users of the EMI distribution as EMI itslef. The advantage for the contributor is the possibility of using the established and proven support structure of EMI without having to define independent SLAs and support structures.

Memorandum of Understanding

What is an MoU?

An Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a written agreement that clarifies relationships and responsibilities between two or more parties that share services, clients, and resources.

Why EMI is establishing an MoU with other projects?

EMI will establish MoUs with other projects to facilitate and strengthen the collaboration between them. The MoU will identify areas of collaboration, clarify roles and commitments from parties involved and agree on a joint programme of work.

A number of MoUs have been signed or are in the process of being finalised with the following specific objectives:

Restricted access to MoU documents

For more information, contact the EMI Project Office at emi-po@cernNOSPAMPLEASE.ch . You will find here the EMI MoU template.

DCI Collaboration Program

As a result of an open call that closed in November 2009, six projects are being granted with nearly €50M by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme in the area of Distributed Computing Infrastructures. Together these projects will provide a pan-European production infrastructure built from federated distributed resources, ensure the continued support, maintenance and development of the middlewares (gLite, ARC, UNICORE and Globus) that are in common use in Europe, explore how grid sites and different applications can be hosted sustainably in commercial, public, publicly procured and private ‘cloud computing’ environments, and provide desktop resources to the European research community. Distributed Computing Infrastructure (DCI) Collaborative Roadmap form a common text agreed by

• EGI-InSPIRE: Federation of national and domain specific resource providers into a European Grid Infrastructure for multi-disciplinary use.
• European Middleware Initiative (EMI): Continued support, development and harmonisation of the European middleware stacks from gLite, ARC, UNICORE and dCache.
• Initiative for Globus in Europe (IGE): Dedicated support for the European Globus community.
• European Desktop Grid Initiative (EDGI): To deploy desktop grids and cloud computing services for European user communities.
• StratusLab: Exploration of running production grid services in a cloud environment and providing cloud resources to research user communities.
• VENUS-C: Will explore and demonstrate the applicability of private and public cloud computing environments to different scientific applications to speeding up e-Science built on the sustainable public procurement of computing and storage resources on the cloud market.

Service Level Agreeement

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are a key method within ITIL and IT Service Management (ITSM) for setting out how two parties have agreed that a specific service (usually, but not necessarily, IT-related) will be delivered by one to the other, and the standards or levels to which it will be delivered. EMI provides a standard SLA with infrastructures and users that can be used as the basis for negotiation of the expected service levels. Currently EMI has one SLA in place with the European Grid Infrastructure.

Operational Level Agreeement

Operational Level Agreements (OLA) is =internal agreements used to define the relationship of two units of the same organization when providing services to customers or users. EMI uses OLAs to define how middleware contributors have to support their software products that are distributed as part of the EMI distribution. Currently EMI has one OLA in place with the EDGI project.

Collaboration with PRACE

PRACE is a very specific e-Infrastructure and collaboration with EMI relies in various distinct activities.

Collection (draft version)