The Globus Alliance is a community of organizations and individuals developing fundamental technologies behind the "Grid," which lets people share computing power, databases, instruments, and other on-line tools securely across corporate, institutional, and geographic boundaries without sacrificing local autonomy.

 

The Globus Toolkit includes software services and libraries for distributed security, resource management, monitoring and discovery, and data management. Its latest version, GT4, includes components for building systems that follow the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) framework defined by the Global Grid Forum (GGF), of which the Globus Alliance is a leading member. GT4's components and software development tools also comply with the Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF), a set of standards in development in OASIS.

 

The Globus Toolkit has grown through an open-source strategy similar to the Linux operating system's, and distinct from proprietary attempts at resource-sharing software.