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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
Procket Release Enables Wire-Speed, Reliable IP Services (01/30/04)
Procket Networks, a provider of high performance Internet Protocol (IP)
routers, has announced a new software release that provides both performance
and feature enhancements to its PRO/8801 and PRO/8812 routing platforms,
including new capabilities in system management, network security, and system
availability. Procket’s core IP routers feature modular software and the
flexibility of a programmable VLSI network processor implementation.
Analysis: Last November, the University of Cambridge selected Procket routers
for its Grid networking center because of their ability to filter traffic at
the application layer while forwarding at full wire speed. This programmable
deep packet filtering capability can be used to provide QoS for Grid
applications or to protect the Grid from Denial of Service attacks.
OSDL Announces First Chinese Member (01/30/04)
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced that Beijing Co-Create
Open Source Software Company Ltd (BCCOSSC), has joined OSDL and plans to focus
on Linux kernel development and the promotion of the Linux desktop in China.
BCCOSSC is a joint venture of 10 separate Chinese software vendors that was
formed in April of 2001
Analysis: More Momentum for Linux in China.
W3C Names New Web Services Activity Coordination Group Chair (01/30/04)
Steve Ross-Talbot has been appointed Chair of the W3C's Web Services Activity
Coordination Group. Ross-Talbot will be responsible for coordination among the
four W3C Web Services Working Groups and with other organizations such as
Oasis' relevant technical committees and the GGF.
Analysis: As Web Services and Grid services standards converge, coordination
among standards bodies will become more important.
Sun Sees Increased Demand For Total Network Solutions (01/30/04)
Sun Microsystems reports strong customer demand for complete network computing
system solutions, including software, hardware and consulting services.
Analysis: As the enterprise mainstream moves toward adopting Grid computing
and utility computing, more organizations will be interested in vendors that
can provide a total solution optimized for business effectiveness.
NEC Soft Joins OSDL (01/28/04)
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to
accelerating the adoption of Linux, has announced that NEC Soft Ltd has joined
OSDL and will participate in the Lab's Data Center Linux and Carrier Grade
Linux working group initiatives.
Analysis: More momentum for Linux in Asia.
TenFold Announces LoadBalancing Feature (01/28/04)
TenFold Corp has announced the addition of a load balancing feature that its
EnterpriseTenFold application platform. The LoadBalancing capability uses
heuristics to distribute user jobs among the processors in a cluster of
computers.
Analysis: Tenfold has recently announced a Web Services strategy for this
enterprise application platform.
Parasoft Releases SOAPtest 2.5 For Web Services Testing (01/27/04)
Parasoft, a provider of Automated Error Prevention (AEP) software solutions,
announced the release of SOAPtest 2.5, the latest version of its Web Services
testing product.
Analysis: As Web Services and Grid Services standards mature, interoperability
among multiple applications and vendor implementations will become critical.
Standards bodies, such as the DSL Forum, have established separate working
groups to address interoperability testing, encompassing performance,
functionality and management.
CENIC, PNWGP Create First Extensible Peering Collaboration (01/27/04)
The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and
the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) have agreed to cooperate in a joint
project (called Pacific Wave) to create, deploy and operate an advanced,
extensible peering facility along the entire Pacific Coast of the United
States. The Pacific Wave will initially offer connection points in Los Angeles
and Seattle, near submarine cable termini. A 10 Gigabit Ethernet link over the
National LambdaRail will be used to interconnect the two Pacific Wave nodes by
the summer of 2004.
Analysis: High bandwidth peering will enhance the cyberinfrastructure for
scientific collaboration and Grid computing over the Internet.
First Phase Of TeraGrid Goes Into Production (01/26/04)
The National Science Foundation's TeraGrid project is now in the first phase
of production with 4.5 teraflops of distributed computing power available to
research scientists across the country. When completed, TeraGrid is scheduled
to provide over 20 teraflops of computing capacity.
Analysis: The TeraGrid and National LambdaRail are efforts to create a new
national cyberinfrastructure in the United States in which multi-gigabit
networks and Grid computing are leveraged to foster scientific research,
innovation and collaboration.
SITA SC, Aventail To Deliver An SSL VPN Managed Service (01/26/04)
SITA SC, a provider of managed services to the air transport industry, will
now resell Aventail's SSL remote access VPN technology to its 1,800 customers,
which includes 22 of the world's largest 25 airlines and over 200 major
airports.
Analysis: Without the client-side complexity of IPsec, SSL remote access VPNs
offer advantages to the managed service provider.
Foundry Expands High Performance Switching Solutions (01/26/04)
Foundry Networks In. has announced two new line cards for its BigIron MG8 and
the NetIron 40G switches. One of these modules has 40-ports of 10/100/1000
Mbps Gigabit Ethernet over Copper with RJ45 interfaces. A 40-port Gigabit
Ethernet (GbE) fiber module is currently shipping. With these modules a fully
configured BigIron MG8 or NetIron 40G switch can support up to 320 GbE ports
per chassis.
Analysis: Switches that support high densities of Gigabit Ethernet copper
interfaces are significant because they provide cost-effective
interconnections for supercomputing clusters, Grid computing, and IP storage
networks.
Customers, ISVs Flocking To Linux On IBM Power-Based Systems (01/26/04)
IBM has announced that it is working with ISVs to expand the breadth of its
Linux offerings, which currently include more than 300 Linux-ready ISV
applications available to run on the IBM eServer pSeries and iSeries POWER
platforms.
Analysis: More POWER to Linux.
Norvergence Standardizes On BEA WebLogic Platform 8.1 (01/26/04)
BEA Systems Inc. announced that Norvergence has adopted BEA WebLogic Platform
8.1 as its standard for enterprise application development, deployment, and
integration.
Analysis: Yet another "customer win" announcement from BEA.
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