Grid Enabled Relational Database Middleware

In DataGrid projects many small and large applications, spread over multiple loosely coupled organizations, work together to provide access to and mangement of massive amounts of distributed data. Many of these applications, such as a replica catalog, service registry, run catalog tools, cluster configuration management tools, job schedulers, logging and performance monitors need to take advantage of reliable and performant database technology to maintain metadata. This technology should involve little complexity, deliver high performance and encourage interoperability. Although a wealth of strong database technology exists, complexity is typically substantial, interoperability weak, and performance not always satisfactory. Until these points are addressed more thoroughly, DataGrid applications will continue to use dozens of varying proprietary approaches towards metadata storage and retrieval.