Grid Computing is one of the strategically important research topics of the ICT group of the Fraunhofer Society. For the Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing this covers all topics dealing with the development of Grid middleware, Grid applications and Grid operation. For us, the term Grid reaches far beyond the simple Grid Computing and is described adequately by the term Resource Grid. This not only covers computers and software but also sensors, technical instruments and measurement tools as well as productive systems. From a user's point of view a Grid provides the virtualization of concrete resources (Grid services) and shall contribute significantly to the simple and easy usage of IT resources.

The Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing is a network of currently 8 Fraunhofer institutes that deal with different topics in the area of Grid Computing, Utility Computing and On-Demand Computing within research and commercial projects. Within the Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing the participating institutes combine their competences into a bundle in order to offer customers and research partners a central point of contact for all questions concerning the networking and optimized use of distributed IT resources. The Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing offers a broad spectrum of services, which comprises the coordinated know-how of the participating institutes and which can be offered to the customer as a single package with a central contact person.

The areas of activity of the Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing are the following:

• bundling of the research competences of the Fraunhofer Society in the area of Grid technologies
• coordination of the service offers for customers and research partners: the Fraunhofer Alliance Grid Computing offers a central point of contact for customers and research partner and therefore makes it possible to cope with large-scale projects, which require a combination of different competences on all details of Grid computing, Grid technologies and Grid applications.
• coordination of the development and enhancement of Grid technologies within the Fraunhofer Society.
• coordination of the participation in international standardization bodies such as OGF or IETF
• Advancement and operation of the Fraunhofer Resource Grids (FhRG) as the Grid infrastructure of the Fraunhofer Society. The FhRG serves for the Fraunhofer-internal use as well as for demonstration purposes face to face with customers and research partners.