Grid Meter » 10g Graduating from Clusters to Grid

September 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)

10g Graduating from Clusters to Grid

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Today Oracle unveiled Oracle Application Server 10g Release 3. It's being touted as a major update to Oracle's SOA middleware platform, and it may be a major addition to enterprise Grid computing in general.

One of the question marks around 10g as a "Grid" solution in the past has been whether it's really Grid technology -- or a cluster technology.

Recall the three key summary points from the definition of Grid, in the eponymic (as if Grid were a person!) paper of 2001 "The Anatomy of the Grid"by Foster, Kesselman and Tuecke.

1) Enable integration of distributed services & resources
2) Using general-purpose protocols & infrastructure
3) To achieve useful qualities of experience

"Grid" implies a level of interoperability and distributed resource sharing among heterogeneous resources spread throughout multiple administrative domains. In the past, the nature of 10g was really more of a clustering solution.

But per the language in this new release, Oracle has taken steps to ensure features such as integration and support for heterogeneous environments are included. It is also reported that it will allow 10g middleware components to integrate with existing enterprise infrastructure. This is an unprecedented level of aggregation for a 10g product. There is a list of over 128 commercial enterprise software packages Release 3 will interoperate with. Point one was clearly taken to heart.

Point two has also been addressed. Release 3 is also standards driven. Built on a foundation which includes a wide range of web service standards support as well as support for the SAML 1.0 and 2.0 security standards. Perhaps most impressive is the commitment to open source software applications. It will be certified with a large number of these applications which support open standard protocols.

Although the general availability release is scheduled at the end of fiscal year 2006, it may be some time before we see point three answered. However, if the above does indeed hold true, Release 3 may be one giant leap for enterprise "Grid kind."

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on September 19, 2005 02:14 PM

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