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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
MOST EUROPEAN COMPANIES HAVE NO
INSIGHT INTO GRID LOAD LEVELS
Oracle Corp unveiled research that provides, for the first time, detailed
insight into issues around the use of server hardware and Grid computing among
European companies. Oracle commissioned the research because Grid computing
has the potential to be a disruptive technology with a major impact on
business, and yet very little has been done to understand companies'
perceptions of it and the opportunities that surround it.
The most disturbing result from the survey was that more than 50 percent of
companies have no insight into the level of load or stress on their technology
infrastructure -- in other words, more than half of European companies are
flying blind.
Those that do have some insight into this area indicate that one third of
servers are running at or close to capacity; overall about 60 percent of
server capacity is used.
The survey was conducted during August and September 2003 by QNB
Intelligence,
the wholly owned primary research subsidiary of Quocirca Ltd, an independent
analyst company. Respondents were people in European businesses who controlled
or strongly influenced the planning, investigation, selection and deployment
of strategic IT technologies and solutions. 307 respondents participated
across eight countries and 10 industries.
Europe's Server Infrastructure
"It is noteworthy that 30 percent -- nearly a third -- of companies simply
go
out and buy more hardware when a system encounters capacity problems, and yet
server loading is averaging only 60 percent," said Tim Payne, Oracle senior
director of Technology for EMEA. "This means that many companies are wasting
money on extra server hardware when they could be sharing unused capacity to
overcome their bottlenecks. This is exactly the problem that Oracle Grid
Computing will address through products such as Oracle 10g. Gartner puts the
EMEA server market for 2002 as 1.37 million units and $15 billion. An average
60 percent utilization means that over half a million of those servers are
effectively excess capacity. If enterprise Grid computing could increase
overall utilization to 90 percent, then companies across Europe would save
$4.5 billion a year in reduced server shipments."
Grid Computing To The Rescue
"The survey shows that nearly half of medium and large European companies
have
considered Grid computing in some form or other, such as computing on demand
or utility computing," said Clive Longbottom, head of research for Quocirca
Ltd. "Cost is seen as the top issue with Grid, which conflicts with the
understanding that Grid brings server consolidation benefits. Interestingly,
threat to intellectual property comes next as a perceived issue, which puts
the onus upon vendors to ensure rigorous attention to security and privacy in
their implementations of Grid computing."
The survey reveals a classic early adoption attitude to Grid computing.
Nearly
half have considered it, and further say that the top two areas for
consideration of Grid computing would be enterprise applications (such as
enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management) and
databases. However, 45 percent of companies feel that Grid computing will not
become a mainstream commercial reality for three years or more.
"The timeframe perceptions among the companies in this survey are very
interesting for Oracle," continued Payne. "With Oracle 10g already announced
and due for delivery later this year, we say to the marketplace that the time
to start is now, not in three years. We have already shown that we can deliver
these benefits and help companies turn them into the commercial reality of
improved bottom line performance."
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