Distributed computing in practice: the Condor experience

TLDR

Since 1984 the Condor project has enabled ordinary users to perform extraordinary computing and continues to investigate the social and technical challenges of cooperative computing from desktops to the global Grid. This paper presents the history and philosophy of Condor, detailing its interactions with other projects and its evolution alongside distributed computing. The authors outline Condor’s core components and explain how computing technology must align with social structures. They reflect on lessons learned and trace how research ideas have matured into production systems. © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract Since 1984, the Condor project has enabled ordinary users to do extraordinary computing. Today, the project continues to explore the social and technical problems of cooperative computing on scales ranging from the desktop to the world‐wide computational Grid. In this paper, we provide the history and philosophy of the Condor project and describe how it has interacted with other projects and evolved along with the field of distributed computing. We outline the core components of the Condor system and describe how the technology of computing must correspond to social structures. Throughout, we reflect on the lessons of experience and chart the course travelled by research ideas as they grow into production systems. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.