On building parallel & grid applications: component technology and distributed services

Software component frameworks are well known in the commercial business application world and now this technology is being explored with great interest as a way to build large-scale scientific application on parallel computers. In the case of grid systems, the current architectural model is based on the emerging Web services framework. We describe progress that has been made on the common component architecture model (CCA) and discuss its success and limitations when applied to problems in grid computing. Our primary conclusion is that a component model fits very well with a services-oriented grid, but the model of composition must allow for a very dynamic (both in space and it time) control of composition. We note that this adds a new dimension to conventional service workflow and it extends the "inversion of control" aspects of must component systems.