Special Features:
IBM RACES TO FORM NEW GRID
ECOSYSTEM
IBM has announced new offerings to further expand Grid computing into
commercial enterprises, including the introduction of new solutions for four
industries -- petroleum, electronics, higher education and agricultural
chemicals. In addition IBM announced that more than 35 companies, including
networking giant Cisco Systems, will join IBM to form the foundation of a Grid
ecosystem that is designed to foster Grid computing for businesses.
IBM also announced RBC Insurance, Royal Dutch Shell and Kansai Electric
Power
as new Grid customers.
RBC Insurance -- RBC Insurance took an existing application and
Grid-enabled
it based on IBM eServer xSeries and middleware from IBM Business Partner
Platform Computing. The integrated solution allowed RBC Insurance to reduce by
75 percent the time spent on job scheduling, and by 97 percent the time spent
processing an actuarial application. Based on that success, RBC Insurance is
now looking to expand the IBM and Platform Computing solution across
additional applications and business units to improve efficiencies and to
increase customer satisfaction.
"IBM and Platform Computing Grid-enabled our valuation application and
supporting infrastructure for immediate results," said Keith Medley, Head of
Insurance Technology, RBC Insurance. "With the integrated solution, we have
been able to reduce a 2.5 hour job to 10 minutes, and an 18 hour job to 32
minutes. We are now looking to move to a production environment. By
virtualizing applications and infrastructure, we anticipate being able to
deliver higher quality services to our clients faster than ever before, which
will significantly impact our competitive edge"
Royal Dutch Shell -- IBM worked with Royal Dutch Shell to build a reusable
software toolkit that works as a wrapper around existing applications,
creating a Grid-enabled infrastructure for their seismic interpretation
applications. The solution, based on IBM eServer xSeries running the Globus
Toolkit and Linux, cut the processing time of seismic data while improving the
quality of the data, ultimately allowing Royal Dutch Shell to focus its
employees on key scientific problems.
"Grid computing is important to Shell because it offers the potential to
create a truly unlimited resource, with a uniform interface to a variety of
services," said Jacob Buur, principal research physicist, Shell International
and Production B.V. "This is a significant opportunity for Shell to engage its
independent companies in closer cooperation."
The Kansai Electric Power Co Inc. -- KEPCO, Japan's second-largest electric
utility, is working with IBM to develop an information-based Grid that will
allow KEPCO to federate and virtualize various data sources across the
enterprise. The Grid solution will integrate information distributed across
departments and affiliated companies to enable information sharing using
existing systems and to develop new businesses more rapidly at a minimum
cost.
Building the Grid Ecosystem
Recognizing that no one company can drive commercial adoption of Grid
computing, IBM has unveiled an initiative to build a Grid ecosystem consisting
of software vendors and Business Partners that will help develop commercial
Grid solutions.
Cisco joins more than 35 new and existing Business Partners and other
vendors
to form the foundation of the developing IBM Grid ecosystem. IBM and Cisco are
working together to enable enhanced Grid services for Storage Area Networks
(SAN). Cisco's intelligent multilayer storage networking architecture helps
lay the foundation for building globally scalable access to Grid data. The
integration of intelligent services into the network helps simplify data
access across the Grid and resource sharing and management. Earlier this year
IBM began reselling the Cisco MDS 9000 SAN switches. Cisco has plans to
enhance these switches to enable globally scalable access to data through
Grids.
"The ability to access storage in a scalable and secure way is a critical
component in Grid computing, allowing businesses and their partner companies
to manage massive amounts of data and to collaborate worldwide," said Soni
Jiandani, vice president of marketing in the Storage Technology Group at
Cisco. "The IBM and Cisco solution is an important step in delivering the very
real benefits of Grid and on demand computing to businesses of all sizes."
This announcement expands on the existing global strategic alliance between
Cisco and IBM. The two companies combine their strengths in Internet
infrastructure, e-business systems and services to deliver end-to-end Internet
business solutions to enterprise and service provider customers.
Application software vendors joining Cisco in IBM's Grid ecosystem
initiative
include:
- Accelrys, which plans to provide Research and Development solutions for
customers in the Life Sciences industry.
- Cadence, which plans to provide Engineering and Design Automation
solutions
for Electronics customers.
- Calypso Technology uses Grid computing to increase the speed of financial
analytics for customers in the financial sector.
- Force10 Networks Inc plans to work with IBM in all industries for
Enterprise Optimization supporting the significant network demands that Grid
computing puts on Grid environments.
- Landmark Graphics Corporation, which integrates all aspects of the
upstream
oil and gas industry with leading software and services, plans to work with
IBM on Research and Development Grid solutions for Industrial customers.
- Mercury Interactive plans to work with IBM on software quality in all
sectors for Enterprise Optimization.
- MSC.Software plans to work with IBM in Industrial for Engineering and
Design.
More than twenty IBM Business Partners also are helping to form the IBM
Grid
ecosystem. A fact sheet with Business Partner information is available on
request.
"Grid is an industry-wide effort built and designed around open standards,"
said Tom Hawk, IBM's general manager of Grid computing. "IBM is working to
bring business partners, developers, system integrators, middleware companies,
and IT vendors of all shapes and sizes together to form a Grid ecosystem that
will accelerate the adoption of Grids in the enterprise."
Grid Industries and Offerings
IBM, which in January announced its go-to-market strategy built around five
Grid focus areas that address the needs of the aerospace, automotive,
financial markets, government and life science industries, has announced new
offerings for four additional industries.
Agricultural Chemical (Research and Development and Business Analytics
Focus)
-- IBM is offering an Analytics Acceleration Grid and an Information Access
Grid. The Analytics Acceleration Grid can help speed scientific discoveries,
including producing high value seeds, by improving computing and storage
resources. The Information Access Grid is designed to help customers maximize
exploitation of data resources by efficiently managing data volumes and
non-standard data formats required for new discovery in fields such as
molecular biology.
Electronics (Engineering and Design Focus) -- IBM is offering an
Engineering
Design Grid and Design Collaboration Grid. The Engineering Design Grid will
help electronics companies aggregate disparate elements such as compute and
data resources from suppliers, OEMs and contract electronics manufacturers
(CEMs) to create a single unified system to help accelerate new product
introductions. The Design Collaboration Grid will enhance data sharing across
partners requiring intensive manufacturing processes and electronic design
automation (EDA) tools.
Higher Education (Research and Development Focus) -- IBM is offering a
University Collaboration Grid, which enables seamless sharing of large amounts
of raw research data among researchers and across institutions by providing a
flexible and expandable infrastructure that can adapt to changing research
requirements.
Petroleum (Engineering Design Focus and IT Optimization) -- IBM is offering
a
Geophysical Processing and Analysis Grid and an IT Optimization Grid. The
Geophysical Processing and Analysis Grid is designed to reduce seismic imaging
time and improve reservoir management results by providing better access to
key analytical tools and applications, available when and where required, and
scalable to meet the demands of projects that require 'peak' resources. The IT
Optimization Grid can help customers exploit underutilized compute and storage
resources while improving flexibility and scalability.
The new Grid offerings are designed to operate in a heterogeneous
environment
and will incorporate the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA). IBM Global
Services will support all elements of a Grid implementation with both IBM and
non-IBM hardware and software.
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