Distributed Computing: Tools, Paradigms and Infrastructures. An Introduction

Abstract

The technology and performance improvements of computational architectures and communication infrastructure, together with the increase of the demand for a greater and more easily usable computing power, generate new sophisticated requirements for distributed application development. The methodologies, infrastructures and tools traditionally used to develop distributed applications disclose a variety of limitations when applied to these new and evolving scenarios. The goal of this minisymposium is to investigate these issues, presenting some innovative approaches in managing the complexity in the design, development and performance analysis of distributed systems. Papers included in this minisymposium primary face the challenges of using the computing Grids as a commonly accepted general purpose computing platform, but the focus is also on paradigms and tools to support the programmers in developing efficient parallel solutions using MPI and OpenMP libraries. Furthermore, particular emphasis is given to some significant aspects of industrial and commercial distributed applications such as, the mobility, the dependability and the security.