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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Systems/Enterprise:
GRIDS CONTINUE MARCH INTO
COMMERCIAL SECTOR
RBC Dominion Securities Inc, a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, has recently
taken advantage of a Grid of several dozen computers, and a risk-analysis
calculation that used to take five days now takes only four hours.
The idea behind Grid computing is that groups of computers used mainly for
other purposes are put to work together in their spare time. Many computers
use only 10 to 20 percent of their capacity, but Grids can get them working 90
percent of the time.
Grids, which are popular in government, academia and research, are now
making
their into the business sector. Many large companies have complex computing
problems to solve, and Grids can help them to do so.
Currently, the oil and gas industry is using Grids for work that helps
exploration companies understand the geology of an area, identify promising
drilling locations and estimate the likely size of deposits.
Manufacturers, particularly auto makers and aerospace companies, also are
using Grids for design work and simulating crash tests.
In the financial sector, Grids help with the complex calculations involved
in
areas such as derivatives trading. Royal Bank of Canada has set up several
computing Grids of about 100 computers in its capital markets and insurance
units.
Grids also are being used by the compter industry, to whom their potential
is
no secret. IBM uses a Grid to stress-test software before it is released.
One thing most companies using Grid computing today have one thing in
common
is that they are large. To build a worthwhile Grid, there must be a lot of
computers. And the problems Grids solve best are mainly problems big companies
face.
The minimum cost of a Grid would be about $30,000, although the cost can go
up
depending on its size and the vendor.
The approach that Platform, United Devices and other Grid-technology
companies
are taking -- selling large corporations the tools to create their own
computing Grids -- is only one way of making money from Grids.
Using United Devices' software, computer maker and seller Gateway Inc has
linked about 6,000 personal computers in its U.S. showrooms to offer a service
it calls Gateway Processing on Demand. Gateway charges 15 cents per gigahertz
hour of processing time.
One customer, the American Diabetes Association, uses the Grid for a system
that can simulate the effect of different treatments on diabetes patients.
Grid computing could also play a role in IBM's vision of delivering
computing
power as a utility -- companies could purchase computing horsepower as they
need it from a supplier that actually owns and runs the computers.
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