Early Harvest: Workshops for a First Cutting of Middleware Issues and Practices in Higher Education

关于第二级国家网络基础设施的共同愿景正在开始出现。除其他外，这一层的服务可能包含对用户安全有效地访问远程站点的基于网络的资源的支持。然而，在此之前，所涉及的园区集将需要面对确定可互操作的中间件服务的核心集需要是什么的问题。也许更困难的是定义要通过服务执行的校园策略的相关活动。这些服务及其执行的策略需要渗透到园区基础设施、系统和服务中。该奖项提供资金，以允许一组“研究”机构通过评估政策定义和部署的最佳做法来解决这些问题，然后制定一项多机构试验计划，以实例化和使用所需的核心服务。结果将有助于向NSF和其他机构通报旨在刺激这一新的逻辑网络基础设施出现的计划。

A common vision for a second level of national networking infrastructure is beginning to emerge. This layer of services, among other things, is likely to incorporate support for users to securely and effectively access network-based resources at remote sites. Before that can happen, however, the set of involved campuses will need to confront the issue of determining what the core set of interoperable middleware services needs to be. Perhaps more difficult is the related activity of defining campus policy to be enforced through the services. These services and the policies they enforce will need to permeate campus infrastructures, systems, and services. This award provides funding to permit a set of "study" institutions to attack these problems by evaluating best practices for policy definition and deployment and then to create a plan for a multi-institution experiment in the instantiation and use of needed core services. Results will help to inform NSF and others regarding programs designed to stimulate the emergence of this new logical network infrastructure.