The NetSolve environment: Progressing towards the seamless grid

The NetSolve software project has matured into a robust system that reliably manages and interconnects disparate computational resources. Resource management and allocation policies, heterogeneity, faulttolerance and security are some of the issues that need to be resolved in such environments. This article is meant to introduce the reader to the NetSolve system and offers a discussion of some of the key developments that have taken place in the project during recent months. To make the article coherent and somewhat self-contained, brief insight is given into some of the more fundamental aspects of NetSolve; the newer features and enhancements are given a more detailed discussion. For completion, there is a discussion of successful uses and integrations of the NetSolve system.