A survey of self-adaptive grids

Grid systems allow the execution of a class of highly demanding services and applications. These grids involve communication networks, and their links are essential resources for massive data transfers. However, the management of current grid systems requires intervention for efficient service provisioning. Moreover, this need increases with the increase in demand for grid services. Therefore, grid systems will become effective only when they are capable of self-managing resource allocation to cope with fluctuations in resource availability. At present, however, very few integrated self-adaptive mechanisms have been implemented in existing grid systems. The aim of this article is to provide a survey of existing mechanisms and suggest directions for enabling autonomic operation of grid systems.