Mechanism for managing parallel execution of processes in a distributed computing environment

A computer-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for managing execution of work, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• receiving a work request, said work request specifying a first job and a second job, said first job comprising a first task and said second job comprising a second task;
• processing said work request to automatically determine whether said first and second jobs have any dependencies that have not been satisfied;
• and
• in response to a determination that said first and second jobs have no dependencies that have not been satisfied, causing said first task of said first job and said second task of said second job to be executed in parallel;
• wherein said work request does not explicitly specify that said first and second tasks be executed in parallel.

A network device that can manage execution of work, the network device comprising:

• a network interface;
• a processor coupled to the network interface and receiving network messages from the network through the network interface;
• a computer-readable medium comprising one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of:
• receiving a work request, said work request specifying a first job and a second job, said first job comprising a first task and said second job comprising a second task;
• processing said work request to automatically determine whether said first and second jobs have any dependencies that have not been satisfied;
• and
• in response to a determination that said first and second jobs have no dependencies that have not been satisfied, causing said first task of said first job and said second task of said second job to be executed in parallel;
• wherein said work request does not explicitly specify that said first and second tasks be executed in parallel.