Previously available only to the research and development community, grid computing is now making inroads into public agencies. Said Dr Lee Hing Yan, Programme Director of the National Grid Office (www.ngp.org.sg), “Public agencies are becoming more aware of what the grid can offer. They begin with less sensitive applications such as Singapore Land Authority’s land data hub, and NLB’s Web Archive Singapore (WAS). Once confidence is assured, they will embark upon other projects.”

WAS is an initiative to archive "snapshots” of some 70,000 Singapore-registered websites.

WAS is an initiative to archive “snapshots” of some 70,000 Singapore-registered websites that are of historical, heritage and informational value.

“Taking snapshots of the Singapore web domain, and preserving that as heritage allows Singaporeans and future generations to have an understanding of the evolution of our digital culture,” says Mr Raju BLN, Director of Digital Library Services at the NLB. “By tapping on the Grid’s immense computing and processing resources to index and archive these .sg sites, we are able to increase the rate of web crawling by as much as eight times.”

To tap on the NGPP for web crawling and indexing of the .sg websites, NLB tweaked its web-archiving applications to use more than 30 computers for the WAS project. “The IT investments into new equipment and bandwidth will be significant if we were to do it on our own. It is more economical to tap on NGPP’s grid resources as they are readily available, says Mr Raju.

NLB is targeting to complete taking a snapshot of the Singapore web domain in eight to nine months. “If NLB were to do it based on existing resources, it will take about 70 months,” said Mr Raju.

The speed and power of the NGPP were also the main draw for students of RI, who chose to work on grid-enabling AutoDock - a popular simulation-based application used in the drug discovery process.

Said student Mr Chang Su Jian, “Drug discovery is traditionally the bottle-neck of any drug development cycle because the docking process in which a candidate binds to a protein ligand is extremely specific, and therefore only obtainable through trial-and-error experiments in the wet lab. By simulating this process, AutoDock significantly speeds up the entire drug development cycle.”

According to Mr Chang, AutoDock is computationally intensive and requires high performance computing. “This comes at a high cost since clusters and supercomputers are by no means cheap to build and maintain,” said Mr Chang. “As such, a grid is a very effective yet low-cost solution to such high performance computing problems. AutoDock running on a grid environment allows for a quantum leap in scientific research.”

Both NLB and RI have been using the distributed computing power of the NGPP. According to Dr Lee, a separate grid infrastructure will be established for public agencies and business users. This will be available for use next year.

About 40 government agencies authenticate public users with SingPass for access to about 370 e-services.

Singaporeans who have forgotten their Singapore Personal Access (or SingPass) password can now have it reset almost immediately, thanks to new features introduced in response to user feedback. The enhanced SingPass system will also have a single login page compared to the previous two-step process.

SingPass, developed by the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, is a common online ID and password for public users to transact with the Government online. About 40 government agencies authenticate public users with SingPass for access to about 370 e-services requiring secure user identification.

Previously, users who had forgotten their passwords had to go to a SingPass counter to have it reset, or submit their request online for a new password to arrive by post four working days later. Now they can reset their password online almost immediately. For added security, users are required to first answer questions about themselves correctly, before receiving a code on their pre-registered mobile phones and another code on the online screen. Users can then use these codes together to reset their password.

The new features were introduced from 25 November, together with a new hotline (6887 7377) and email address (singpass-helpdesk@crimsonlogic.com) for users who have queries or require assistance in using SingPass.

Commenting on the enhancements, Ms Pauline Tan, Senior Director, Government Chief Information Office of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said, “With increased online connectivity and mobility among infocomm users, the Government has to ensure that SingPass continues to serve users effectively and efficiently when they access
government e-services.”

Since the launch of SingPass in March 2003, the total volume of SingPass authentication transactions has grown from 4.5 million in 2003 to 18.9 million in 2006, representing an increase of over three-fold in usage over four years. The SingPass system today has three million registered users.

The new hotline, SingPass website and system administration will be managed by CrimsonLogic, which was appointed by the Government through a competitive tender to develop, operate and maintain SingPass in April 2006. SingPass was previously managed by the CPF Board.

“The SingPass system is still owned by the Government. Safeguards will be put in place to ensure the continued smooth management of the system as well as maintain the strict confidentiality of user information,” said Mr Fong Yong Kian, Director (Managing for Excellence) of the MOF.