Ibergrid 2009. Towards an International Grid: A work of everyone.

During many years the grid computing efforts in Europe were focused at developing the technologies and demonstrating them in the field through pilot infrastructures. In time these infrastructures evolved to become production oriented services supporting a wide range of scientific applications. These international and regional infrastructures that exist today are still based on the same organizational and financial models. They are still much dependent on European funds and based on the individual participation of research organizations across Europe. Some of these infrastructures have found ways to continue operating without external funding usually this implies both a commitment from the partners to continue supporting them and a considerable reduction of the associated development and support activities. None of these models ensures the long term sustainability of these grid services. This is clearly one of the main obstacles to a wider adoption of these technologies. For new users the learning curve and the effort required to adopt the grid technologies is still high and frequently only makes sense when considered as part of a strategic investment. Such an investment requires confidence in the long-term availability of the grid services and technologies.