Automatically distributing a bid request for a grid job to multiple grid providers and analyzing responses to select a winning grid provider

A computer-implemented method for automatically controlling selection of a grid provider for a grid job, comprising:

• a client system communicatively connected to a network enabling access to a plurality of grid providers of a plurality of grid environments;
• said client system further comprising:
• means, responsive to a user at said grid client system entering at least one criteria for a particular grid job intended for submission to one from among said plurality of grid environments, for selecting at least one grid provider from among said plurality of grid providers to query for availability to process said particular grid job to meet said at least one criteria;
• means for automatically distributing said at least one criteria in a bid request for said particular grid job to said at least one grid provider;
• means for storing at least one bid response received from said at least one grid provider;
• means, responsive to reaching a deadline for return of responses for said bid request, for select a winning bid response from among said at least one bid response for said particular grid job;
• and
• means for automatically distributing said particular grid job from said grid client system to a particular grid provider submitting said winning bid response.

A program for automatically controlling selection of a grid provider for a grid job, said program embodied in a computer-readable medium, said program comprising computer-executable instructions which cause a computer to perform the steps of:

• responsive to a user at a grid client system entering at least one criteria for a particular grid job intended for submission to an grid environment, selecting at least one grid provider of said external grid environment to query for availability to process said particular grid job to meet said at least one criteria;
• automatically distributing said at least one criteria in a bid request for said particular grid job to said at least one grid provider;
• storing at least one bid response received from said at least one grid provider;
• responsive to reaching a deadline for return of responses for said bid request, selecting a winning bid response for said particular grid job;
• and
• automatically distributing said particular grid job from said grid client system to a particular grid provider submitting said winning bid response.