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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
GRID COMPUTING COMES TO
MALAYSIA
Anil Prabha has reported in NSTP Emedia that the hyperbole surrounding Grid
computing in Malaysia seems to be reaching a feverish pitch as major industry
players begin to showcase their offerings and solutions for the enterprise
market.
While the benefits of Grid computing are acknowledged within the halls of
academia and research, the jury still holds reservation whether it can really
be the answer in facilitating business processes in the heterogeneous
environment of vertical computing.
IBM Malaysia's public sector country manager Afizulazha Abdullah believes
that
the memorandum of understanding signed between IBM Malaysia and Malaysian Debt
Ventures Bhd, a company wholly-owned by the Finance Ministry, to promote Grid
computing technologies in the local information and communications technology
sector, signals intent on the part of IBM to pursue the potential of this
technology.
"The purpose of this collaboration is to enable local companies to compete
more effectively at the global level through the employment of Grid computing
technologies," Abdullah said. He points out that such technologies facilitate
large-scale data sharing and processing capacity equivalent to that of
multiple supercomputers at a fraction of the price.
"Both companies are sharing their knowledge databases, exploring further
joint
marketing and solutions opportunities and identifying prospective partners to
provide end-to-end e-business and on-demand solutions for organizations," he
added.
Oracle's vice president for marketing and business development
Asia-Pacific,
Chris Hummel, is equally upbeat about the local adoption rate of Grid
computing.
"With pressure on budgets, companies will be looking for alternatives that
can
maximize the assets they already have," he said. Hence, he believes Grid
computing fits well in today's environment where optimization of resources and
a concerted focus on return on investment dominates the agenda. "Components of
Grid computing like clustering and integration technology are already in use.
For example, thousands of our customers have already adopted Oracle Real
Application Clusters using the Oracle9i technology."
He said the company is offering a compelling proposition of lowering the
costs
and increasing efficiencies through the optimized allocation of computing
resources.
"Grid computing is about software and managing information, and this is
Oracle's core competence," Hummel said.
He added that Grid computing requires tight integration across database,
storage and application server areas and powerful tools to manage across a
heterogeneous environment.
T.F. Chong, managing director of Hewlett-Packard Sales Malaysia, takes a
more
cautious approach. He believes that local enterprises are aware of Grid
computing, but he does not expect many to invest heavily in the technology.
Phil Sargeant, research director of servers and storage for Gartner
Australasia, shares the same view.
"Grid computing is something that will gain traction over the coming years,
but at this point in time, in almost all countries in Asia-Pacific (including
Malaysia), it is non-existent," he said.
Sargeant said the technology will not come into its own until commercial
applications become available for the architecture.
"Issues such as security and software licensing will also have to be ironed
out before Grid computing can become more widespread," he added.
Security within Enterprises
Grid computing enables the virtualization of distributed computing
resources
such as processing, network bandwidth and storage capacity. This creates a
single system image, thus giving users and applications seamless access to
vast ICT capabilities.
But as more connectivity and computing power are harnessed, the concern
about
security is also becoming a burning issue, especially in the enterprise
circle.
There are numerous issues surrounding the security of a Grid, from the
identification of different components within the Grid, to the supporting of
the authority and authorization of these components in order to perform
different tasks within the Grid structure.
Michael Monty, IBM's Asian/South Asia Grid computing executive, says
security
is an issue no matter what type of Grid an enterprise produces.
"In a nutshell, security elements encompass secure authentication and
communication over computer networks while services needed include mutual
authentication and single sign-on based on proven standards such as public key
encryption, X.509 certificates, and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)," he said.
Hummel added that most of the current systems distribute complexity
throughout
an organization, thus creating an enormous security risk.
"But within an enterprise Grid, all resources including software
applications,
storage and servers are managed as one so that there are uniform security
policies across the system," he said.
Hummel claimed that Oracle 10g addresses these security challenges by
delivering the first identity management platform designed for Grid computing.
Chong said security is more of an ongoing challenge and a contextual leap, as
there is a need to balance the inherent benefits of connectivity in the Grid
utility computing age versus the overriding concern for security.
"Ultimately, security concerns will be addressed by the development of Grid
computing standards and business models that support security," he added.
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