Achieving information dependability in Grids through GDS2

In Grid computing infrastructures, data are usually distributed among different nodes and thus shared among several users. In order to achieve satisfactory performance and adequate fault tolerance with regards to the requirements, it is necessary to replicate data, taking into account information confidentiality and integrity. In this paper we face the problem of data dependability in Grid, by proposing a redundant lightweight cryptographic algorithm combining the strong and highly secure asymmetric cryptographic technique (RSA) with the symmetric cryptography (AES). The proposed algorithm, we named grid dependable storage system (GDS²), has been implemented on top of the gLite middleware file access and replica management libraries, as a file system service with cryptographic capability, redundancy management and POSIX interface. This choice of implementing GDS² as a file system allows to protect also the file system structure. This paper particularly focuses on the GDS² algorithm and its gLite implementation.