Market Models for Grid Computing

网格计算领域的大多数研究人员认为，在未来，计算服务将像今天的电话、电力和其他公用事业一样提供。在这种情况下，将有一个市场，不同的电网公司竞争和合作，以服务客户。公司将不得不设定价格来吸引客户并赚取利润。可能选择提供全球资源信息数据库服务的政府也同样必须确定价格，也许是出于最大限度利用的不同目的。在欧盟关于下一代网格的报告中，网格研究的这一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都在按小时销售网格访问。市场上已经存在两家公司争夺GRID客户的情况。可能用不了多久，我们就会看到代理（在不同的环境中也称为中间人或最终用户的供应商）重新销售他们从提供商那里批量购买的网格服务。这将构成通常的三级市场结构，例如，在电力市场中，我们有发电商、供应商和用户。对于希望提供全球资源信息数据库接入作为购买计算机的有效替代方案的有关公司来说，重要的是要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出售，这一点将变得更加明显。这个网格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。虽然大量的努力旨在建立金融市场模型，但对商品市场模型的了解要少得多。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。通过结合我们在电子科学、建模市场（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，市场建模和描述经济系统中的人类行为是统计物理学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会影响这些领域的基础研究。该建议旨在为网格计算提供一个高层次的市场模型。与以前的研究相比，我们建议调查，而不是使用经济方法的微观管理未来的网格，而是如何未来的基于网格的经济可以建模和预测。这将与航空、电力和电话行业的现有结构有一些相似之处和类比，但将特别关注电网的需求和独特特征。

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.