developerWorks: OGSA-DAI: A Look Under the Hood: Part 1: Architecture and Database Access

“OGSA-DAI is middleware designed to make it easy to access and
integrate data in a grid environment. The project involved multiple
partners, a complete list of which can be found at the OGSA-DAI Web
site, at http://www.ogsadai.org.uk, although the majority of
development was carried out at EPCC, Scotland and IBM Hursley Park,
England.

“We used the reference OGSA implementation from the Globus
Project, Globus Toolkit 3 (GT3). GT3 is a Java hosting framework
for grid applications that provides an environment in which a grid
application can register its services, maintain its state, and
communicate with other applications.

“The catalyst for OGSA-DAI was the need for a middleware layer
to provide access to large and essentially static databases for a
number of ‘Big Science’ projects. OGSA-DAI is structured as a
toolkit with extension points to allow developers to extend the
capabilities to suit their specific needs. An example of this is
the database management system, where we currently support
relational databases (through JDBC) and XML databases (through
XMLDB). However, it is possible for application developers to write
their own database support should the need arise…”

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