 |
|
DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
|
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. http://www.mcclellanconsulting.com
Oracle Assures Local Customers Of Smooth Migration To 10g (03/05/04)
Oracle is touting the ease with which Oracle 8i to 9i customers can migrate
to
Oracle 10g. Among the reasons for migration are that Oracle Database 10g and
Oracle Application Server 10g feature improved support for Grid computing,
including integrated support for clusters via real application clusters (RAC),
and automatic storage management (ASM). ASM hides the complexity of how the
database distributes data over network attached storage (NAS) and storage area
networks (SANs).
Analysis: Oracle continues its program of leveraging cluster/Grid
technology
in competing against Microsoft's SQL Server.
Grid Escalates As IT Investment Priority (03/04/04)
New survey results from Platform Computing show that the priority
enterprise
IT managers place on Grid computing is increasing. In addition, the 40 percent
of the respondents report they are currently using Grid computing while 33
percent plan pilots or production within the next 12 months.
Caveats: The definition of Grid computing used was quite broad, and the
self-selected group of respondents had enough interest in the Grid to visit
the Platform web site to complete the survey. Therefore, the results tend to
depict a more rapid adoption of Grid computing than can be expected for the
general market. The trend, however, is pointing toward broader adoption of
Grid computing. What is really needed to make this happen faster is the
availability of more off-the-self cluster/Grid-enabled business
applications.
Lindows Adds P2P Servers To Corporate Infrastructure (03/04/04)
Lindows Inc has implemented a BitTorrent-based system of P2P servers to
distribute LindowsOS software to purchasers. The P2P distribution network
provides better download performance and saves Lindows the opex for high
bandwidth Internet access and the capex for a large central download site. The
cost savings are reflected in a 50 percent discount on the rpice for software
downloaded via BitTorrent P2P.
Analysis: The BitTorrent shareware creates a P2P server network that serves
as
a Grid for reliable downloading of software. Distributed download sources
could be self-owned or leased from hosting providers or possibly could even
include computers belonging to customers who have down loaded the
software.
Foundry To Provide Infrastructure For UIUC Research Center (03/03/04)
Foundry Networks Inc has announced that the new Siebel Center for Computer
Sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is a
customer win for its Ethernet switching products.
Analysis: Any new research facility similar to this should be deploying
Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop in order to avoid early obsolescence of the
switched infrastructure.
Network Associates, IBM To Deliver On-Demand Computing (03/03/04)
Network Associates Inc announced a partnership with IBM that will allow the
Network Associates McAfee VirusScan and McAfee Entercept intrusion prevention
software to be integrated with IBM's Tivoli Intelligent ThinkDynamic
Orchestrator. The combination with automate the provisioning of McAfee
security functionality for networked systems
Analysis: This announcement has a weak linkage to "On-Demand" computing,
which, in turn, is weakly-linked to Grid computing.
Model-Driven Architecture Approach Increases Productivity (03/02/04)
The Middleware Company announced the results of its research on the
productivity of developers of J2EE applications using Model-Driven
Architecture (MDA) vs. code-centric approaches. MDA has been found to offer
over 35 percent higher productivity vs code-centric methodology for both code
maintenance and creation
Analysis: J2EE is a commonly-used middleware tool for creating distributed
applications and Web services that are platform independent.
Resilience DX4500 VPN/Firewall App Dramatically Lowers TCO (03/02/04)
Resilience Corp, a manufacturer security appliances supporting Check Point
VPN-1/FireWall-1 NG software, has announced the DX4500 series appliance with
master/slave dual processors for fail-safe operation and throughput
performance of up to 1.5 Gbps firewall and 600 Mbps VPN.
Analysis: High performance, high availability firewalls and VPN gateways
are
a
potential application of cluster computing.
USENIX Association Refutes SCO's Claims On Linux (03/02/04)
USENIX has taken the side of open source vs. SCO.
Analysis: It appears that SCO's only ally in the Linux case is
Microsoft.
MCI Initiates First Denial Of Service Performance Guarantee
(03/01/04)
MCI is offering a Denial of Service (DoS) Service Level Agreement (SLA) to
its
customers for Internet access. IP VPNs, and Colo/Hosting services. The SLA
guarantees a response (including an elevated human pulse rate plus key strokes
and mouse clicks at the NOC) within 15 minutes of a customer-posted trouble
ticket reporting a suspected DoS attack.
Analysis: MCI hopes that innovations like this one will help it regain its
former stature as a premiere supplier of telecom services.
|