New release from UK's leading Grid open-source middleware provider

New middleware from the OMII (Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute) is released today (Monday 21 March) with the latest version of OMII_1.2. For the first time OMII_1 is available for Redhat Enterprise Linux. OMII is based in the School of Electronics and Computer Science. This latest release follows the successful public launch of OMII_1.0 in December 2004 and continues the OMII mission to become the UK source for reliable, open-source Grid Middleware. The OMII was launched in 2004. It is a £6.5m project, funded by the UK e-science programme and led by Professor Peter Henderson and Professor David De Roure OMII_1.2.0 has been extensively tested and is now available to the community. This release offers increased platform support, improved performance, easier installation, easier testing and improved functionality. The OMII provides an open source grid infrastructure that addresses user requirements of combining usability within a secure environment. The Institute believe that emphasis on usability and a low entry cost is the key to enabling collaborative e-science. OMII has taken the middleware that exists on the market and refined the code so that it is packaged in a way that meets users’ needs. The OMII Grid infrastructure does this by providing a number of common services, such as accounting and data, within a secure environment, available to all deployed applications, and which as a result benefit from a consistent security policy. Users can develop their own web services, making use of the common services, and hosted by the OMII secure infrastructure. OMII_1 is a professional grid infrastructure to support collaborative computing in a secure and accountable manner. It addresses the needs of service and resource providers by providing a detailed accounting model linked to the authorisation system. It addresses the needs of users by providing secure yet easy access to resources and services. It addresses the needs of administrators by providing a simple to install and manage infrastructure without the usual security worries.