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Things to do to Secure the Grid

Alternatively, things that potential intruders might find as ways to bypass Grid security. Who will get there first?

  • Pay attention to authentication. Rather than treating the certificate server as an add-on task, deploy it as you would your other critical public servers.
  • Keep it internal. Since the grid is all about virtual organizations, IP-level security (firewalls etc.) can be used to keep others out.
  • Deal with the pain of upgrading and patching. Keep a separate set of systems for apply upgrades and patches (Globus, OS, applications, etc.); develop your own test suite. Be able to roll back changes if needed. In short, give enterprise-level attention to grid systems.
  • Ride the wave. Change in grid protocols and software is here to stay. Expect to work hard at keeping your applications running with the latest versions, but also expect the payoff of fewer security holes, and a much more active support community.
  • Think carefully about deploying critical applications on the grid, or about deploying grid technology on critical systems. While there are success stories and production services, for the most part the grid is not yet ready for prime-time.
  • Keep informed: There are lots of new and exciting developments in grid computing. Fans of high performance computing, clustering, distributed computing, and Web services will be interested to see how the grid continues to develop.

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