A small search object, for example a DNA sequence gained by an actual experiment, was compared with very log DNA sequences stored in huge, world-wide distributed databases. The aim was to find out, if and where surprising similarities with the unknown sequence can be detected.

The emphasis lay on the grid and WebServices aspects of the implementation. They demonstrated the basic structures of OGSA (Open Grid Service Architecture) environments and the natural synergy of WebServices and Grid infrastructure. The actual grid infrastructure consists of world wide distributed heterogeneous compute and data nodes, grid nodes (Linux, zSeries - AIX/pSeries - Linux, xSeries) in Böblingen, in Austin (Linux, pSeries and AIX, pSeries), and in Poughkeepsie (Linux, zSeries and Linux, pSeries).

The Demo architecture used 3 tiers:

• end user level (client-tier), the input of a DNA sequence and the output of the results is realised via a simple WebBrowser interface
• the central mid level (middleware tier), here the web services for using the grid infrastructure are implemented
• the world-wide distributed grid of compute and data nodes (tier 3).