Globally Distributed User Analysis Computing at CDF

To maximize the physics potential of the data currently being taken, the CDF collaboration at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has started to deploy user analysis computing facilities at several locations throughout the world.At the time of this writing, over 700 individual users are signed up and able to submit physics analysis and simulation applications directly from their desktop or laptop computers to these facilities.These resources consist of a mix of customized computing centers and a decentralized version of our Central Analysis Facility (CAF) initially used at Fermilab, which we have designated Decentralized CDF Analysis Facilities (DCAFs).The goals of this project are to reach a total of 25% of the experiment's overall computing through off-site resources by the end of 2004, and to expand this to 50% by the end of 2005 through grid-enabling these resources.We report on experience gained during the initial deployment and use of these resources for the summer conference season 2004 that have allowed us to meet the 2004 goal.During this period, we allowed MC generation as well as data analysis of selected data samples at several globally distributed centers.In addition, we discuss our plans for developing a migration path from this first generation distributed computing infrastructure towards a more open implementation that will be interoperable with LCG, OSG and other general-purpose grid installations at the participating sites.