Metasystem is the name of a new technique of computing that allows users to use resources clearly divided geographically, establishing the idea of an integrated computer system. The metasystem integrates, through high-speed networks, complex heterogeneous resources such as: huge databases or supercomputers.
Metasystems allow the sharing of resources in an orderly manner, within very active and inter-institutional companies. Increase local computing capacity. Productivity is improved by having a mostly simple programming environment.
Like storage devices, metasystems must incorporate resources of varying capacities, linked by unreliable networks, located in different administrative fields. However the need for superior performance may require quite different programming models and interfaces.
Some of the advantages offered by these systems are: the savings it offers users, since other resources can be expensive. Shared permanent file spaces.
Among the reasons that motivated the creation of the metasystems are:
Scalability: its purpose is that these systems manage to support thousands, and even millions of machines, that can be connected through the internet.
Ease of use: adding a new machine to the set should be easy. Simplicity in the development of applications.
Execution times: it has to do with the problems that usually take time to solve. Checkpointing mechanisms are required to ensure that the amount of work lost during failures is minimal.
Adaptive parallelism: the group of machines tends to grow and decrease when executing an application. This is why the metasystem must be able to reassign jobs.
Heterogeneity: implies different architectures. Availability and high performance.
