Grid Meter » July 2006

July 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Another Grid / Linux Tie In

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PC Welt ran a recent article from Guy Cross of the Oracle Asia Pacific Linux Business Unit.

The article was titled "Linux is optimal OS for grid computing".

The general theme of the article was that the idea of virtualization and Grids built upon standard, modular components and getting them to work together as one resource, is a good fit for Linux and the open source open standards movements in general. This symbiotic relationship yields greater flexibility and responsiveness in an IT infrastructure.

The article initially caught my eye as it played upon several of the themes that we touched on in a past issue of the Globus Consortium Journal.

The PC Welt article was brief but presented some good "rules to live by" for those that want to keep their IT infrastructures malleable.

From the article:

• Standardize. Take inventory to find out what you are running, and ask if the vendors will be around in 10 years, he said. 'Do research and find out what the vendors are rallying behind.' The answer, he said, lies in the 'O3 zone' ' open source, open standards and open systems.
• Consolidation. Have a 360 view of your business and start to migrate to do more with less, so that there is less cost to manage. Start at the hardware layer and then move to the database and then applications, to higher levels of abstraction.
• Automate. Take advantage of grid computing by deploying groups of small, cheap servers, or leverage on Oracle on demand to have software delivered as a service, so that the enterprise can focus on its core business.

A bit of a self serving plug at the end, but in general a pretty concise set of rules for those concerned about being nimble.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 31, 2006 09:18 AM

July 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)

IBM Announces Life Insurance Grid Offering

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IBM recently announced a Grid Offering for the Life Insurance Industry. The release states that this offering is to help life insurance clients significantly decrease the time needed to run complex insurance model scenarios. So it appears to be a number crunching horsepower play.

Data grids may be a bit passe, but everybody has to start somewhere and if this is the way the hook gets planted in the insurance industry so be it.

I do hope that the insurance industry is open to the potential that Grid, and associated technologies that we often name in the same breath as Grid, can bring to what they do.

Virtualization, and in particular data virtualization is one such technology.

Insurance is a business of data, and the way that data is looked at by different organizations in the same company can be very different. For instance, the way an actuary examines a chunk of data is quite different from the way an adjuster would look at the same chunk. If this data can be virtualized or presented in different ways to those using it, query times can be reduced and more efficient use of the data can be realized.

Where the rubber meets the road, or more accurately, where the money meets the bank, I'm going to bet that the mechanism of data virtualization will prove to be more valuable than pure computational horsepower.

Right or wrong, I hope to find out. The sooner, the better.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 26, 2006 02:25 PM

July 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Hot Summer Fun - Virtualization Sizzles

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Wow, what a week for news in the virtualization space. Microsoft and XenSource partnered up, VMware then blasted their plans and IBM put their hand up to support Xen on Novell! Whew.

So what does it all mean? Let's start with Microsoft and XenSource teaming up. Paula Rooney at CRN provides a great recap of the deal:

"Microsoft and XenSource plan to provide interoperability between Xen-based Linux distributions and the virtualization technology planned for the "Longhorn" Windows Server.

The development of such a bridge would allow Microsoft partners and customers to deploy and run Xen-enabled Linux guest operating systems on the Longhorn's "Viridian" virtualization engine, which is slated to become available for Windows Server in the first half of 2008.
The move also enables Microsoft to position its virtualization server code, due to ship six months after Longhorn, as suitable for a variety of hardware platforms and heterogeneous environments--a key requirement as the Redmond, Wash., software giant and XenSource prepare to take on virtualization market leader VMware."

As the last sentence alludes, a fight is a brewing and VMware is coming out swinging. Check out Brian Byun's VMware's VP of Products and Alliances blog entry on the deal - some "highlights" of his comments below:

> "It's a one-way street that favors Microsoft and Windows running Linux."

> "XenSource, in diverging from its open source and Linux virtualization roots, is enabling the commercial interests of Windows and building to proprietary Windows API layers."

> "The timing is rather notable. It's odd to trumpet future interoperability for the Windows hypervisor whose first release is roughly two years away or more..."

And IBM announced that their low-end servers and middleware will support XenSource Inc.'s open-source Xen virtualization technology, since it's included in Novell Inc.'s new SUSE Linux distribution. As IBM's Scott Handy VP WorldWide Linux and Open Source Software notes:

"There's no doubt how important virtualization has become," said Scott Handy, vice president of worldwide Linux and open-source software at IBM. Servers are heavily underutilized. Being able to virtualize their hardware can be a real cost saver for companies."

My take - The 800 lb. gorilla that XenSource will need to face up to is VMware. There are 3 ways to attack - through product, through customers and with partners. VMware is defending their turf - no surprises there. This battle will be one to watch over the next 12 months and will, I believe, have a lasting effect on grid and distributed computing.

I also find it interesting that this is an area where Microsoft has not been able to freeze the market with a pending product announcement - a subject for a future blog.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 21, 2006 06:50 AM

July 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Around the Horn: Analyst Discussions Around Grid

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GRIDtoday has run a number of interesting articles recently highlighting analyst research on grid computing. Keep in mind, most of these reports can cost big money but very often the abstracts or press releases provide some detail that is interesting, your mileage may vary.

Bob Rosenberg at Insight Research has a report out that forecasts the vertical market spend for grid computing. Interesting in particular as the Grid spending numbers have actually increased (in fact nearly doubled for 2008) since their 2003 Vertical Market Perspective. Bob also has a detailed backgrounder available on the Insight web site.

"Though large telecommunications firms, including BT and Telefonica, have selected a Grid middleware software partner to build out their service delivery capabilities, and a number of startups in Grid have received venture capital, Grid is still new to many IT organizations," said Insight Research president Robert Rosenberg. "The technology is still seeking widespread acceptance because using Grid computing software is still a challenge, and the dominant standards remain somewhat unstable."

The Aberdeen Group has a report out that says SOA adoption has reached 90%. I'm a little less sure that I believe the hyperbole in the title of this one, but with all the talk surrounding virtualization/grid/SOA it is good to see reports focusing on this area.

The report highlights three approaches to SOA adoption:

• SOA "Lite": This approach is based on open-source programs and industry standards and is best suited for small companies, lightweight integration, and simple Web services such as employee self-service.
• Enterprise SOA: This is a suite of SOA middleware for mission-critical and complex installations, best suited for mid-to-large companies.
• SOA ERP. This approach offers mid-size and some large companies an entry to SOA via extensions to enterprise resource planning (ERP) application software.

And The Yankee Group released last week the results of its 2006 Global Server Virtualization Survey. Some of the major survey findings include:

• Sixty-two percent of respondents already have a virtualization solution in place or are in the process of migration.
• To date, only 14 percent of businesses have not yet chosen a server virtualization vendor, and only 4 percent of companies have no plans to install a virtualization solution.
• VMware is the market leader with 55 percent of the installed base.

I am generally skeptical about these reports until I understand the methodology behind them. However, all three of these reports appear to be based on survey data pulled from shops working through the virtualization/Grid/SOA experience.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 17, 2006 12:01 PM

July 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)

A Broader Scope Needed for Grid Standards Bodies

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There is a great article in a recent GRIDtoday from Ian Lumb detailing the Open Grid Forum's necessity but questioning its sufficiency. At a high level, Ian's point is that standards are all fine and well and indeed necessary, but the real crux of the problem is being able to show genuine mass-market adoption of Grid technology.

Ian draws an excellent contrasting picture of the relative success of virtualization and web services and its message of in-sourced virtualization compared to outsourcing utilization and "plugging into the Grid" as the key messages of Grid.

In this blog I recently wrote on the Grid community needing to escalate application development. Ian points out that "applications can be effectively Grid-enabled by drawing on non-GGF, non-EGA or even Web services standards." The real danger here is that the first one to demonstrate the mass-market appeal for Grid, instead of simply another infrastructure based upon its principles, will take the trophy and the rest will fade into obscurity. Fine for the OGF if this happens to be a group that embraces the standards that have been the raison d'etre of the GGF for the better part of the last decade. But will it?

Ian states "Grid computing isn't quite as big a deal as many would like it to be." Why? There is still today a lack of the enterprise proof points and third party validation that is needed to show that there is substance to the promise of grid computing. Organizations like OGF will help, but there needs to be and increased concentration on organizational support, enterprise case studies and direct application of the technology to name a few.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 13, 2006 08:46 AM

July 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Workshop on Virtualization Technology

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Welcome back after a long holiday. I certainly hope that some of my regular readers are back to work as well!

It is certainly no secret that I have an interest in virtualization and its applications to Grid and distributed computing.

In the past I've blogged on virtualization and its applications to Systems management, the common ground, common direction and common challenges for virtualization and Grid, and even data virtualization being a catalyst for Grid adoption.

I credit my interest in virtualization to Kate Keahey a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and in particular this paper she authored.

I've featured the work that she and her group have done both in this blog and in the Globus Consortium Journal.

However, one of the things that has always bugged me is that the topic of virtualization is somewhat loosely defined and everything from virtual workspaces to virtual machines to data virtualization seems to get dropped into this bucket. This is certainly reflected in the diverse topics of my various blogs.

But where is the unifying factor for all this? Apparently I was not the only one wondering.

The First International Workshop on Virtualization Technology in Distributed Computing will be held in conjunction with SC06. The call for papers is now out for what I'm sure will be the definitive line in the sand for what is meant when the term virtualization is used.

When you hear "call for papers" one naturally thinks of research and academics. But remember, that's how this whole Grid thing started. And take a look at who is represented in the program committee, a great mix of folks from commercial industry as well. Enterprise players in this space would be well advised to make sure they have their foot in the door by attending and actively participating.

I'm looking forward to hearing about what comes out of this workshop and you can be sure I'll be contacting Kate for a detailed report.

Posted by Greg Nawrocki on July 12, 2006 08:27 AM