J. Altmann, R. Buyya, and O.F. Rana (Eds.): GECON 2009, LNCS 5745, pp. 171–181, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Business Collaborations in Grids: The BREIN Architectural Principals and VO Model Steve Taylor 1 , Mike Surridge 1 , Giuseppe Laria 2 , Pierluigi Ritrovato 2 , and Lutz Schubert 3 1 University of Southampton IT Innovation Centre, 2 Venture Road, Chilworth, Southampton SO16 7NP, UK {sjt,ms}@it-innovation.soton.ac.uk 2 Centro di Ricerca in Matematica Pure e Applicata (CRMPA) c/o DIIMA, Università degli Studi di Salerno, via Ponte Don Melillo, 84084 Fisciano (Italy) {laria,ritrovato}@crmpa.unisa.it 3 High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) Nobelstr. 19 D - 70569 Stuttgart, Germany schubert@hlrs.de Abstract. We describe the business-oriented architectural principles of the EC FP7 project “BREIN” for service-based computing. The architecture is founded on principles of how real businesses interact to mutual benefit, and we show how these can be applied to SOA and Grid computing. We present building blocks that can be composed in many ways to produce different value systems and supply chains for the provision of computing services over the Internet. We also introduce the complementary BREIN VO concept, which is centric to, and managed by, a main contractor who bears the responsibility for the whole VO. The BREIN VO has an execution lifecycle for the creation and operation of the VO, and we have related this to an application-focused workflow involving steps that provide real end-user value. We show how this can be applied to an engineering simulation application and how the workflow can be adapted should the need arise. Keywords: Service Oriented Architecture, Grid Computing, Supply Chain, Value Network, Virtual Organisation, SLA, Workflow. 1 Introduction This paper discusses the business-focused architectural principles and VO model approach of the BREIN project. The architecture is founded on the principles of how real businesses interact to mutual benefit, and we show how these can be applied to SOA and Grid computing by way of examples driven by the project’s end-user scenarios. BREIN has two real-world end-user scenarios that have determined requirements and validation for the project’s innovations. These are in the two areas of airport ground handling and virtual engineering design simulations (so-called because the simulations enable virtual engineering designs to be evaluated without the need for