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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
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Special Features:
THIS WEEK'S BRIEF ANALYSES OF
RECENT GRIDtoday NEWS ITEMS
By Rolf McClellan
Following are brief evaluations of recent news stories from GRIDtoday. Rolf
McClellan has nearly 20 years of experience in the network and computer
industry. www.mcclellanconsulting.com
IBM, SUSE LINUX Achieve Higher Level Of Linux Security (01/22/04)
IBM and Novell's SUSE LINUX business unit announced they have achieved new
levels of security and operations certification (CAPP/EAL3+) for SUSE running
on the IBM eServer product line. CAPP/EAL4+ certification is planned across
the IBM eServer product line for next year. The certifications will facilitate
the adoption of Linux by a variety security-conscious government agencies,
including the U.S. Department of Defense where Linux is being considered for
critical command-and-control operations.
Analysis: This announcement relates to acceptance of Linux in government
and
other mission-critical market segments rather than to Grid computing per
se.
BEA Announces Expanded Linux Offerings (01/21/04)
BEA Systems Inc, an application infrastructure software company, is
expanding
its emphasis on Linux support offered by its BEA WebLogic software
platform.
Analysis: More momentum for Linux in the enterprise market.
Procera, Ezyte Partner For XML, Web Services-Based Switching (01/21/04)
Procera Networks Inc and Ezyte Inc are in the process of adapting the
Procera
content-aware (Layer 4-Layer 7) enterprise Ethernet switching products for
application environments that make heavy use of XML and Web Service
technologies. The result of the collaboration will be the EZ-2-XML switch,
which is intended to improve the performance, security, and manageability of
network traffic based on XML and Web Services.
Analysis: This collaboration is primarily relevant for the broader XML and
Web
Services market. "Application Layer" Ethernet switching could potentially be
applied to enterprise and campus Grid computing via implementation of QoS
policies that minimize latency and packet loss for inter-processor messages
used by distributed applications.
New Converged Grid, Web Services Specifications (01/21/04)
Akamai, The Globus Alliance, HP, IBM, Sonic Software and TIBCO have
proposed
two new Web services specifications that seek to integrate Grid and Web
Services standards. The new WS-Notification and WS-Resource specifications
could lead to a common, standards-based framework for application integration,
data access, and management of distributed computing resources. The WS
Notification specification was written by IBM, Globus, Akamai, HP, SAP, Tibco
and Sonic and provides a publish-subscribe messaging capability for Web
Services. This could allow the availability of a new Grid resource to be
published on the network. The WS Resource Framework specification was written
by IBM, Globus and HP and defines how a stateful WS Resource may be accessed
via a Web service.
Analysis: The specifications are very significant for Grid computing
because
they provide a standard mechanism whereby Grid resources can provide Grid
schedulers with timely information on resource status and availability.
Furthermore, a standards-based framework shared by Web and Grid services can
improve the accessibility of Grid and utility computing technologies for both
technical and business applications.
Oracle 10g Stuns NSE.IT In Beta Test Phase (01/20/04)
The first beta-test of Oracle 10g in India by system integrator NSE.IT is
reported to be going well.
Analysis: Surely, some other migrations from Oracle 9I to 10g must be
further
along than this.
OSDL Forms Desktop Working Group to Accelerate Linux Use on Enterprise
Desktops (01/20/04)
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced the formation of a
new
Desktop Linux Working Group initiative focused on accelerating the adoption of
Linux as a desktop operating system in the enterprise market. OSDL already has
work groups focused on Data Center Linux (DCL) and Carrier Grade Linux
(CGL).
Analysis: A larger population of Linux desktops could facilitate the
migration
of some Grid applications from Linux clusters to the campus switched LAN
connecting desktop systems.
InfoVista Wins Performance Management Contract Performance Management of the
U.S. Military's Worldwide IP Network GIG-BE (01/20/04)
Juniper Networks has awarded a GIG-BE subcontract to InfoVista for a
performance management solution for edge and core IP/MPLS routers. GIG-BE, a
worldwide switched optical network will connect 100 Defense Department sites
around the globe with access bandwidth per site of at least 10 Gbps
(OC-192c).
Analysis: With GIG-BE, the DoD has set a goal of eliminating wide area
bandwidth as a constraint to leveraging IT. As such, GIG-BE may prove to be
one of the prime testbeds for high bandwidth Grid computing on a global scale.
Infrastructure and management solutions that prove their effectiveness in
GIG-BE will be leading candidates for adoption in future gigabit Intranets
built by enterprises and service providers.
VERITAS Announces Key Building Block For Utility Computing (01/19/04)
VERITAS Software Corp has announced that the latest version of its
automated
server provisioning software VERITAS OpForce 3.2 which now includes support
for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server,
in addition to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The new
release also includes support for Intel 64-bit Itanium processor-based
servers
Analysis: Automated server provisioning is particularly valuable where
there
are a large number of servers that share the same configuration profile, such
as those commonly found in blade servers and in future utility computing
environments.
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