| GlobusWORLD at GridWorld 2006 Wrap-Up |
GlobusWORLD / GridWorld Wrap-Up GlobusWORLD at GridWorld 2006 has come and gone and we all survived! And if the amount of news is any indication, Grid is absolutely prospering. Below we have aggregated some of what we believe to be the highlights of the news from GridWorld and have categorized news into like categories. Included are links to the GRIDtoday summaries of these stores and in some cases links to the press release or mainstream news article. Click on any of the categories below to go to that specific section.
Forward-looking researchers in the U.S. and Japan have demonstrated "automated" interoperability between computing resources in two national computing research test beds for the first time. Researchers at the G-lambda project in Japan, working with the Enlightened Computing project in the U.S., were able to reserve, manage and monitor computing and network resources across both countries, a task which typically takes weeks or more to accomplish manually. The achievement advances thee development of a Global Grid of compatible, networked resources that some see as the key to the next generation of information technology.
Partnerships and Grid Customers
Altair Engineering Inc. and eXludus Technologies Inc. have entered into a partnership to integrate Altair's PBS Professional workload management system with RepliCator, eXludus's parallel file serving and data provisioning application. Together, RepliCator will improve application performance for data-centric applications, while PBS Professional will enhance the performance of data delivery by selecting the appropriate nodes.
Altair Engineering Inc. will support United Devices' (UD) attempt to integrate Altair's PBS Professional workload management software with UD's HPC Synergy product. Altair and UD will coordinate integration, testing, marketing, and customer support.
Accenture and Sun Microsystems have agreed to collaborate on the development identity-enabled SOA and custom, composite applications for clients, taking advantage of Accenture's delivery team and Sun's hardware/software platform. The expanded Accenture-Sun relationship involves several new projects, including the creation of the Accenture Innovation Center for Sun Solutions, which will initially be staffed by engineers from both companies. In addition, a joint executive team will guide future strategy in the area.
Digipede Technologies will provide visual effects studio Digital Dimension with an integrated software solution necessary to power Digital Dimension's digital content creation grid. Digital Dimension also licensed the Digipede Network, a distributed computing solution for Microsoft Windows, to manage applications used to create its portfolio of 3D animation, motion graphics and visual effects for film, television, and gaming. With its services in high demand, Digital Dimensions had struggled to coordinate multiple, compute-intensive graphics applications until they came across Digipede's scalable, Microsoft-friendly solution.
Tangosol Inc. announced the Coherence Data Grid Solution Set, which optimizes data grid performance and extends enterprise access to the data grid with three new client connectivity options. The Coherence Data Client enables enterprise-wide access to grid services; the Coherence Real Time Client allows real-time access to data feeds, and some types of caching; and the Coherence Compute Client optimizes performance for data-intensive grid notes as well as transaction intensive application servers.
Univa Corporation announced the Univa Network, a subscription-based service to support enterprises deploying Grid 2.0 solutions with Univa and the Globus Toolkit. Univa Network subscriptions will be available at basic and premium levels, and subscribers will have access to comprehensive customer support, the Univa knowledge base, and enterprise Grid management tools. IBM will be one of the first supporters of the Univa Network.
Fujitsu announced the availability of FlexFrame for mySAP Business Suite 3.2B, an integration which uses virtualization to enable companies to run mySAP applications using SOA. According to Fujitsu, companies can enjoy top-to-bottom SAO deployment of mySAP applications with the new FlexFrame integration, resulting in greater flexibility and lower total cost of ownership.
IBM introduced the Tivoli Dynamic Workload Broker, which enhances workload automation for enterprise clients by migrating the Tivoli Workload Scheduler into a virtual environment. The new software will improve efficiency and reduce costs by automatically clustering, scheduling and managing different types of workloads.
eXludus Technologies Inc. launched RepliCator 2.0, the latest version of the company's parallel file serving software. Simultaneously, GRIDtoday announced that RepliCator won the 2006 Editor's Choice Award for the "Most Innovative Storage Solution for a Grid Implementation." RepliCator 2.0 features an integrated interface with Altair's PBS Professional software, new support for Mac OS X, as well as new Auto-Restart and FTP functions.
Cluster Resource Inc. announced the inclusion of Grid Learning in Moab Grid Suite, the company's policy based Grid management solution. Grid Learning adds intelligence and adaptability to Moab Grid Suite, which will no be able to learn strategies over time such as the optimal allocation of resources for a given application. Grid Learning is also the first component of its kind to be integrated into a scheduler.
GemStone Systems introduced GemFire Enterprise 5.0, a high-performance, distributed operational data store designed to meet the requirements of advanced J2EE, Grid, SOA and OLTP applications. As the core component of the GemFire Enterprise Data Fabric, Enterprise 5.0 includes fundamental components of databases, messaging and caching, and virtualization.
Digipede Technologies introduced Digipede Network version 1.3, which features integration with Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server, an expanded API and finer IT controls. The release allows users to more easily roll out new grid-enabled applications from pooled Windows desktops and servers.
The Open Grid Forum (OGF) officially launched, naming a Board of Directors and Operational leadership team, and enunciating a mission and strategic priorities. OGF's mission is to accelerate Grid adoption to ensure business value and scientific discovery. With this mission in mind, OGF will work to establish a more productive environment for Grid innovation, outreach and communication, as well as redouble efforts to deliver standards that enable interoperability.
IBM announced a new set of Grid computing programs and business and technical resources to help its business partners sell more Grid solutions. The IBM Grid Ecosystem is designed to provide technical and industry education, sales enablement, support, and tools to help IBM business partners win more clients, particularly in the mid-market and enterprise segments.
Appistry announced the launch of its "Right from the Start" program. The program accelerates the ability of startups and growing organizations to develop and deliver their offerings by giving them easier access to Appistry's Enterprise Application Fabric (EAF). The program includes no-cost, production-use licensing for Appistry EAF, dedicated support, and access to a variety of resources via a Web-based portal.
The 451 Group has concluded that energy companies are increasingly deploying Grid for purposes of risk management, balancing supply and demand ratios, and responding to price fluctuations. Oil and gas companies were early adopters of Grid technology for processing of seismic data, but the new research shows them to be using Grid for purposes other that those applications for which they were originally procured.
GRIDtoday announced the winners of its inaugural Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards. Some winners: IBM, Platform Computing, Univa Corporation, eXludus, Voltaire, Cisco Systems, United Devices, Sun Microsystems, Digipede Technologies, Terrascale Technologies, TeraGrid and CERN. The program also recognized innovative adopters in vertical industries such as earth sciences/energy, financial services, and entertainment.
The UK e-Science Programme tied with the TeraGrid to win the GRIDtoday's inaugural Editor's Choice Award for the organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in government research. Malcolm Atkinson, UK e-Science Envoy from the National e-Science Centre at the University of Edinburgh says: "The UK e-Science Programme is delighted to receive this recognition for its innovative research, especially from such an influential community in the grid world."
IDG World Expo announced that Ian Foster, Univa Corp., and IBM are the inaugural winners of the GridWorld "Industry Leadership Awards," which were presented at the annual conference in Washington, D.C. The awards were conceived to honor both an individual and an organization for their technical and business leadership in bringing Grid to the market.
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