Highlights
Lightweight Resource Sharing Platform
Resources are represented by active software components (services). Services
are hosted within lightweight H2O containers supporting deployment, lifetime
management, and communication.
Stateless and Scalable
Resource providers are independent of each other and, to a large extent,
of clients. Resource aggregation is a client abstraction
/ responsibility. No specific centralized discovery or
authentication mechanisms are assumed.
Diverse deployment scenarios
Raw resources may be configured by providers, authorized clients, or
third party resellers. A variety of discovery and aggregation techniques
appropriate to a given situation may be used.
Multiple application models
The H2O substrate is designed to naturally support multiple
modes of distributed computing: metacomputing (HPDC), client-server,
task farm, peer-to-peer,
distibuted component composition and others.
Portable and Interoperable
H2O backplane is Java-based, so it can run on virtually any platform.
Subsequently, this allows users to transparently aggregate
heterogeneous resources.
If necessary, deployed services may interface to platform-specific code
and leverage legacy libraries. H2O features dynamic protocol negotiation
techniques with SOAP used as the first-contact protocol to accommodate
heterogeneous client environments.
Secure
Resource sharing scenarios call for sharing policies
and mechanisms to enforce that policies. H2O delivers security via
well established technologies (SSL/TLS, JSSE, JAAS, Java Platform Security) to
ensure protection of shared resources and data. H2O features mutual
provider/client authentication, secure sessions, and security policies
which allow providers to control the boundaries of resource sharing.