DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / FEBRUARY 03, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 5 ( Previous Article )   ( Table of Contents )   ( Next Article )

Special Features:

SUN WELCOMES IBM'S ENTRY INTO GRID COMPUTING

So IBM announced 10 new products for the grid computing sector. Here's what Sun's chief competitive officer, Shahin Khan, had to say: "IBM's entry into grid computing will serve to grow a market in which Sun has well-established leadership.

Sun welcomes IBM to the grid computing game. As a leading systems vendor in this space, Sun understands that most organizations want an evolutionary process, not one that is revolutionary. Most customers prefer to start with smaller grids, and then grow and evolve their grids as their computing needs change. Sun's focus has been on meeting our customers' desire to grow step-by-step into grid computing.

And that's why we have had such tremendous success in this space, with more than 6,500 grids that have been deployed based on Sun ONE Grid Engine software to date.

Sun has been deploying grids for more than two years now in the corporate world, including grids for Ford Motor Company, Sony Semiconductors, SAAB Automobile, Motorola and GlobeXplorer. Sun has also played a key role in massive academic and research grids, including the Ohio State Supercomputing Center, Germany's Aachen University, Canada's National Research Council, Japan's University of Tokyo, and the United Kingdom's National Grid at Edinburgh University.

The message that IBM seems to be delivering today is, 'we've noticed that grid computing is important and if you tell us you want one, we'll try to pull one together with services and partners'. At Sun, we have the technology, experience and services to help customers build the size and type of grid they need TODAY -- from smaller cluster grids to the most advanced global grids."

Grid computing is the cornerstone of Sun's N1 initiative. N1 leverages the concept of virtualization that Sun ONE Grid Engine software uses for compute intensive applications, and takes it mainstream for commercial applications. The result is higher utilization, lower complexity and a long-term return on investment of their compute resources.

Furthermore, Sun has been the leading force behind driving grid computing into the mainstream for more than two years now. So, in thespirit of IBM's 10 announcements, here are the "10 Reasons Why IBM Is Chasing Sun's Lead In Grid Computing." (Sun's chronological grid computing developments & successes)

1. Sun launches Sun ONE Grid Engine software (Sept. 2000) -- To date, more than 6,500 grids have been deployed based on Sun ONE Grid Engine software. Today, new grid deployments based on Sun ONE Grid Engine software grow at a rate of approximately 70 per week.
2. Comprehensive online training modules (Sept. 2000).
3. Sun ONE Grid Engine support for Linux platform (Jan. 2001 ) -- 50% are on Solaris OE, 25% on Linux, 25% mixed.
4. Open Source Grid Engine Project (July 2001).
5. Sun ONE Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition (June 2002) -- Enables grids across multiple departments/projects/locations.
6. Grid-ready servers: Sun ONE Grid Engine is pre-loaded with new Sun Fire LX50 servers (Aug. 2002).
7. iForce grid computing solution practices in EMEA: (Nov. 2002).
   • Specific solutions for Life Sciences
   • Specific solutions for EDA (electronic design automation)
   • Specific solutions for Financial Services
8. New open source contributions at LinuxWorld: (Jan. 2003).
   • Grid Engine Portal Portlet technology
   • Jini-based Job Application Manager (JOB) technology
9. Sun powers huge grids today. Two recent deployments include:
   • Canada's National Research Council (NRC) powers a country-wide grid based on Sun's grid solution (Oct. 2002)
   • University of Tokyo deploys Japan's largest Genome Analysis System based on grid computing technology from Sun (Jan. 2003) The university's grid is based on Sun ONE Grid Engine software and powers 788 UltraSPARC processors (Sun Fire 15K servers) as well as hundreds of processors within a heterogeneous environment
10. Interesting that IBM mentioned Ford. Ford chose Sun for a grid computing solution months ago. Ford deployed a grid with 500 Sun workstations powered by 1,000 UltraSPARC processors and managed by Sun ONE Grid Engine technology -- see more at: http://wwws.sun.com/software/grid/stories/ford.html.