Several of the IT industry's biggest players have formed
a group called the Enterprise Grid Alliance to promote grid
computing in the enterprise.
Their goal is to boost the adoption of grid computing by
hammering out technology specifications that allow customers to mix
and match products from a variety of suppliers.
Oracle, EMC, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are among the
initial board members of the Enterprise Grid Alliance. Other
participants include NEC, Cisco Systems and Novell.
The alliance is open to any organisation that wants to join,
including customers, for a fee starting at $5,000 per year, said
Donald Deutsch, an Oracle vice president who is serving as
president of the alliance.
One analyst applauded the effort, saying it could benefit large
enterprises, which typically have a mix of hardware and software in
their datacentres. But the magnitude of the task, and the fact that
two of the industry's biggest players - IBM and Microsoft - are not
yet on board, means the alliance has its work cut out, said IDC
vice president of systems software research Dan Kusnetzky.
The goal is to produce a set of specifications that will allow
grid products from various suppliers to interoperate, and to
produce test suites that will help customers identify products that
are interoperable.
The alliance will also study new methods of paying for hardware
and software, since traditional pricing methods are hard to apply
in a grid environment, Deutsch said.
Grid computing involves linking groups of computers and storage
devices together in a way that lets enterprises allocate those
resources dynamically as they are needed. For example, when demand
for a payroll application surges at the end of the month,
enterprises should be able to shift the workload from that
application onto additional servers, and move it off again when the
peak load has passed.
Most of the big companies have been promoting the grid model,
promising to help customers reduce IT costs by using resources more
efficiently. But their products don't always interoperate, causing
headaches for customers who use, for example, Oracle's database
software, HP's management software and EMC's storage gear.
The work of the alliance could prove useful for customers, but
it will be difficult for a large group of suppliers to agree on
common standards, IDC's Kusnetzky said, adding that the alliance
will need to get IBM and Microsoft on board if it hopes to
succeed.
Both IBM and Microsoft are still deciding whether to join and
would not comment further.
Any specifications produced by the alliance will be released on
an open, royalty free basis, Deutsch said. The alliance offers
various levels of membership, ranging from $50,000 for "sponsors"
who hold seats on the board, to $5,000 for "associates" who attend
working group meetings but cannot vote.
Oracle first proposed a commercial grid consortium in September,
and the Enterprise Grid Alliance is the fruit of those efforts. In
proposing the idea, Oracle raised the hackles of groups already
working on grid standards, most notably the Global Grid Forum.
"There was some angst initially, but we've tried to assure [the
other groups] that we will work with them," Deutsch said.
The Global Grid Forum has a broader focus that includes academic
and scientific computing, while the Enterprise Grid Alliance is
focused squarely on the datacentre.
"We are not interested in collecting unused CPU cycles from
widely distributed systems, or in academic and research computing,"
Deutsch said.
The alliance will work with existing standards groups and adopt
their specifications where possible. A representative from the
Global Grid Forum said Monday it supports the work of the
Enterprise Grid Alliance so long as it makes a genuine effort to
use existing standards.
The alliance is in the process of setting up five working groups
and hopes to see deliverables from them in about six months. They
are working on areas such as a common API (application programming
interface) for provisioning systems in a grid environment; a common
security mechanism; and a new model for billing customers using
grid computing.
James Niccolai writes for IDG News
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