ASKALON: a Grid application development and computing environment

We present the ASKALON environment whose goal is to simplify the development and execution of workflow applications on the Grid. ASKALON is centered around a set of high-level services for transparent and effective Grid access, including a Scheduler for optimized mapping of workflows onto the Grid, an Enactment Engine for reliable application execution, a Resource Manager covering both computers and application components, and a Performance Prediction service based on training phase and statistical methods. A sophisticated XML-based programming interface that shields the user from the Grid middleware details allows the high-level composition of workflow applications. ASKALON is used to develop and port scientific applications as workflows in the Austrian Grid project. We present experimental results using two real-world scientific applications to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.