The latest version of the Globus Toolkit, GT3.2, contains py Globus and pyGridWare, two components developed as DOE-funded projects by members of the Secure Grid Technologies Group in CRD’s Distributed Systems Department. This marks the first inclusion of Berkeley Lab projects in the toolkit, the latest version of which was released Feb. 16, 2004.

“I was very pleased to have our efforts included,” said Keith Jackson, leader of the project. “Now there is a much larger group of users who can benefit from our efforts to make the Grid easier to use.”

PyGlobus provides an easier, cleaner, high-level interface to the Globus Toolkit, making the various Grid tools easier to use, Jackson said. The group uses the Python programming language because it utilizes simple, clean syntax and is widely used by the scientific community.

PyGridWare is the Python-based implementation of OGSI, the Open Grid Services Infrastructure, it provides client tooling to support automatically generating bindings to OGSI services, and is fully interoperable with the Java OGSI implementation from Argonne National Lab and IBM.

Getting the two projects included in the toolkit required that the developers demonstrate an existing user base, show that the applications were of sufficient quality, and provide ongoing support. The group will also update both pyGridWare and pyGlobus as new versions of the Globus Toolkit are developed and released.

For more information, contact Keith Jackson at KRJackson@lbl.gov or go to <http://www-itg.lbl.gov/SGT/>.