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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
BRIEF ANALYSES OF RECENT GRIDtoday
NEWS ITEMS
By Rolf McClellan and Jim Metzler
Following are brief evaluations of recent news stories from GRIDtoday by
two
noted IT analysts.
Rolf McClellan has nearly 20 years of experience in the network and
computer
industry. The central thrust of his work has been in analyzing the impact of
emerging technologies on the evolution of enterprise and service provider
network environments: www.mcclellanconsulting.com/
Jim Metzler is a principal in Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a company that
focuses on leveraging technology for business success. In his career, Metzler
has worked in virtually every segment of IT: www.ashtonmetzler.com/
VERITAS Simplifies, Streamlines Disaster Recovery (01/12/04)
VERITAS Software Corp, has added new features to the 4.7 release its Bare
Metal Restore 4.7---disaster recovery software which automates server recovery
and facilitates database and application recovery as part of the company's
utility computing strategy.
Analysis: Another small enhancement for the VERITAS portfolio of solutions for
managing data centers and utility computing environments.
OSDL Establishes $10 Million Legal Fund To Address SCO Threat (01/12/04)
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to
accelerating the adoption of Linux, announced the creation of a Linux legal
defense fund. The fund will defray legal expenses of Linux users involved in
litigation with The SCO Group on issues that affect the Linux community and
industry. OSDL aims to raise $10 million for this fund and will accept
donations from individuals, organizations and companies.
Analysis: Linux has been the operating system of choice for high density
cluster computing. Anything that potentially reduces the simplicity and cost
effectiveness of Linux deployments could well be interpreted as a threat to
Grid computing.
Apple Storms Market With XGrid (01/12/04)
Apple is offering free download of a beta version of XGrid, a computational
clustering technology based on Apple's Rendezvous networking technology. XGrid
can be used to build supercomputing Mac clusters for executing
compute-intensive applications, such as the BLAST gene-sequencing application
(bundled with XGrid) and other parallel applications. Apple claims that an
XGrid cluster consisting of an industry-standard rack of 42 dual-processor G5
Xservers is capable of delivering 1.5 Teraflops of processing power. Last
fall, Virginia Tech University configured an InfiniBand cluster of 1,100 G5
desktop Macs that demonstrated performance of over 10 Teraflops, placing it
third on the current list of the Top 500 most powerful computers in the world.
Analysis:: Grid computing and Grid-enabled applications take a significant
step toward widespread off-the-shelf commercial availability
Verizon Wireless Announces Roll Out Of National 3G Network (01/08/04)
By summer 2004, Verizon Wireless will offer its 3G wireless BroadbandAccess
service, in a number of major U.S. cities. This commercial service, which is
based on Qualcomm CDMA technology, will feature average subscriber access
speeds of 300-500 Kbps.
Analysis: While this should speed up access to the Internet and enterprise
VPNs for mobile workers who find themselves out of range of a WiFi hotspot,
its hard to imagine the Grid tapping into the computing resources of PDAs and
other mobile computing devices.
University of Melbourne's Gridscape Eases Grid Monitoring (01/07/04)
The Grid Computing and Distributed Systems Laboratory of the University of
Melbourne recently released Gridscape, a software tool for monitoring Grid
resources. The software is intended to eliminate the need to write
project-specific code for monitoring new undertakings in Grid computing.
Analysis: Tools that can simplify and streamline the task of managing the Grid
environment have the potential to accelerate more widespread acceptance of the
Grid.
VERITAS Acquires Ejasent Inc; Extends Utility Computing Plan (01/05/04)
VERITAS Software Corp will acquire Ejasent Inc, a supplier of application
virtualization technology for utility computing. Ejasent's UpScale software
allows applications to be migrated on the fly from one server to another
without disruption or termination. UpScale software takes a snapshot of an
application and its state, preserving all its current settings and data, and
transfers it to a different server in near real time.
Analysis: Ejasent's application virtualization technology enhances the VERITAS
portfolio of solutions for managing data centers and utility computing
environments.
Huawei Technologies Licenses NextHop's GateD Routing Software (01/05/04)
Huawei has licensed NextHop's GateD suite of multicast routing protocols for
use in its products. This suite includes IGMP (v1, v2 and v3), PIM-SM,
PIM-SSM, PIM-DM and DVMRP. Huawei will initially deploy these protocols on
their Quidway Net Engine router platforms, and then on other product families
as the market requirement for multicast routing capabilities develops.
Analysis: IP Multicast routing protocols have been generally available from a
variety of switch/router vendors for some time. While IP multicast is a
potentially useful technology for distributing code and data in large scale
Grids, few enterprises or ISPs support multicast services in their networks.
Casio Selects BEA WebLogic Integration 8.1 As SCM Foundation (01/05/04)
BEA Systems Inc announced that Casio Computer Co Ltd has chosen BEA WebLogic
Integration 8.1 as the software platform for its next generation supply chain
management (SCM).
Analysis: SCM and B2B process integration are general IT issues. News releases
on these topics, especially ones that simply report customer "wins," seem out
of place on GRIDtoday.
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