Market Models for Grid Computing

网格计算领域的大多数研究人员认为，在未来，计算服务的提供将类似于今天的电话、电力和其他公用事业。在这种情况下，将会有一个由不同的电网公司竞争和合作为客户服务的市场。公司将不得不设定价格以吸引客户并赚取利润。可能选择提供网格服务的政府将同样不得不设定价格，也许是为了最大化利用的不同目标。在欧盟关于下一代电网的报告中，这一电网研究领域被强调为一个关键的研究领域。网格的发展已经到了企业开始销售网格服务的阶段。例如，BBC和The Register最近报道，IBM和SUN都在按小时出售网格接入服务。已经存在一个两家公司争夺电网客户的市场。可能用不了多久，我们就会看到经纪人(也被称为中间商或不同环境中的最终用户的供应商)转售他们从供应商那里批量购买的网格服务。这将构成通常的三层市场结构，例如，在电力市场中，我们有发电机、供应商和用户。对于希望提供电网接入作为购买计算机的有效替代方案的相关公司来说，重要的是拥有一个能够测试各种定价方案的市场模型。一旦电网接入的期货和期权被出售，这一点将变得更加明显。这个电网市场的未来客户预计将是银行、保险和工程公司、游戏公司以及大学和其他研究机构。尽管为金融市场建模付出了大量努力，但人们对大宗商品市场建模的了解要少得多。我们的研究将使公司和政府机构能够评估不同的战略和法规，以现实的方式探索不同的市场规则。通过结合我们在e-Science、建模市场(参见VR的简历)和计算机性能方面的经验，我们将为网格商品开发一个现实的市场模型。如今，经济系统中的市场建模和人类行为描述是统计物理和经济物理学中一个非常活跃的话题，因此我们的工作预计也将影响这些领域的基础研究。这项提议旨在为网格计算产生一个高水平的市场模型。与以前的研究不同，我们建议调查的不是使用经济学方法对未来电网进行微观管理，而是如何对基于电网的未来经济进行建模和预测。这将与航空、电力和电话行业现有的结构有一些相似之处和类比，但将特别侧重于电网特有的需求和特点。

Most researchers in Grid computing believe that computing services will, in the future, be provided similarly to telephone, electricity and other utilities today. In that case there will be a market with different Grid companies competing and co-operating to serve customers. Companies will have to set prices to attract customers and make profits. Governments that may choose to provide GRID services will similarly have to set prices, perhaps with a different aim of maximizing utilization. This area of Grid research has been highlighted as a key area of research in the EU report on next generation Grids. The development of the Grid has come to a stage where companies are beginning to sell Grid services. For instance, the BBC and The Register recently reported that both IBM and SUN are selling Grid access by the hour. Already a market exists where two companies compete for GRID customers. It will probably not take long until we see brokers (also called middlemen or suppliers to end-users in different environments) re-selling Grid services they bought in bulk from providers. This would constitute the usual 3-tier setup of markets seen, for instance, in the electricity market, where we have generators, suppliers and user.For the companies involved, who may wish to provide GRID access as an efficient alternative to buying computers, it is important to have a market model to be able to test various pricing schemes. This will become even more evident once futures and options for Grid access are sold. Future customers of this Grid market are expected to be banks, insurance and engineering companies, games companies, as well as universities and other research organisations. Although a great deal of effort has been aimed at modelling financial markets, much less is known about modelling commodity markets. Our research will enable companies and governmental agencies to evaluate different strategies and regulations to explore different market rules in a realistic fashion. By combining our experience of e-Science, modelling markets (see VR's CV) and computer performance, we will develop a realistic market model for Grid commodities. Nowadays, modelling markets and describing human behavior in economic systems is a very lively topic in statistical physics and econophysics, so our work is expected to also impact basic research in these fields. This proposal aims to produce a high-level market model for Grid computing. In contrast to previous research we propose to investigate, not the use of economic methods for the micro-management of future Grids, but rather how a future Grid-based economy can be modelled and predicted. This will bear some similarities and analogies to current structures in place for the airline, electricity and telephone industries, but will be specifically focussed on the needs and charcteristics unique to the Grid.