The e-Infrastructure Reflection Group has released the e-IRG White Paper 2008
Here's an excerpt:
The purpose of the e-IRG White Papers is to provide a "snapshot" of technical, policy and organisational developments in the e-Infrastructure domain, influencing the provision, use and broader uptake of the services. Based on this situation analysis, the White Paper outlines the opportunities and challenges stemming from these developments. This analysis culminates in the e-IRG recommendations, providing suggestions for the next steps to maximise benefits from the considerable investments to the electronic infrastructures supporting research activities made in Europe so far.
The selection of topics for this White Paper was based on the recently re-articulated mission of the e-IRG being "to pave the way towards a general-purpose European e-Infrastructure". The topics that at the moment are most important for accomplishing this mission, were chosen after a broad consultation of experts, and presented to e-IRG delegates during the e-IRG workshop in Zurich (April 2008). The topics deemed to be especially relevant at this moment were:
- Grid and Cloud computing
- Security: A holistic approach
- Education and Training
- Global Collaboration
- Sustainability of the computing-related e-Infrastructure
- Remote Instrumentation
- Virtualisation