 |
|
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. www.mcclellanconsulting.com
HP Furthers Adaptive Enterprise With TruLogica Acquisition (03/12/04)
HP in the process of acquiring TruLogica with the intent of integrating its
identity management technology into the Adaptive Enterprise program.
Analysis: Security and network management acquisitions are the order of the
day for system vendors pursuing the utility computing vision.
Cisco Systems To Acquire Twingo Systems (03/12/04)
Cisco Systems Inc announced an agreement to acquire Twingo Systems for its
desktop security solutions for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Virtual Private
Networks (VPNs). Twingo's Virtual Secure Desktop technology can be used to
isolate and eliminate all client-side artifacts of previous SSL VPN
sessions.
Analysis: The Java Applet preserves the "clientless" aspect of SSL VPNs
while
enabling the secure use of borrowed computers or kiosk computers when
accessing the VPN. This announcement is primarily of interest for general
purpose remote access VPNs.
Oracle Reports Fiscal Q3 Earnings Per Share Of 12 Cents (03/12/04)
Oracle Corp announced that third quarter revenues and net income were up 9
percent and 11 percent, respectively, fueled by strong demand for database
software. In particular, sales of the Real Application Cluster (RAC) option
(for Grid-enabling 9i) increased 86 percent.
Analysis: The RAC orders reflect demand for the Oracle brand of
cluster/Grid
computing, which bodes well for acceptance of 10g.
GGF Begins Search For New Chair As Successor To Catlett (03/11/04)
The Global Grid Forum Steering Group (GGF) announced that it is searching
for
a new chairperson as a successor to Charlie Catlett, who is completing a five-
year term as founding chair later this year.
Analysis: A chairperson representing the open source user community might
help
to accelerate commercial adoption of Grid computing.
HP Solutions Let Speedera Deliver 'Out Of This World' Content
(03/11/04)
HP has announced that Speedera Networks, a provider of on-demand
distributed
application and content delivery services, is a customer win for its Linux-
based HP ProLiant DL360 servers.
Analysis: This is simply a spurious hit on the tag line "on-demand" (it's a
bit surprising HP didn't want to substitute "adaptive" for "on-demand").
SDSC's Data Access Technology Named "Biggest And Fastest" (03/11/04)
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) announced that its Data Access
technology, Grid-enbled parallel file system with high-speed data throughput,
has received recognition from the Corporation for Education Network
Initiatives in California (CENIC).The General Parallel File System (GPFS) has
demonstrated the ability to support remote data access at approximately 90
percent of wire speed over a 10 Gbps link.
Analysis: High performance data Grid technology is a very powerful
complement
to computational Grids and opens the door to distributed pooling of data and
visualization of computational results irrespective of the data's physical
location on a high speed network.
Japanese Linux Distributor, IP Telecom, Joins OSDL (03/10/04)
The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced that Japanese Linux
Distributor IP Telecom has joined OSDL and will participate in OSDL's Data
Center Linux and Carrier Grade Linux working groups.
Analysis: In some geographic markets, Linux is emerging as more of a
national
priority than simply a cost-effective operating system for servers and
desktops.
IBM Announces Support For German D-Grid Initiative (03/10/04)
Germany' has announced its D-Grid initiative to build a nationwide Grid
infrastructure based on the GGF Globus Toolkit. The D-Grid initiative will
link universities, research institutes, and commercial enterprises for Grid
software R&D (2004-2008) and pilot projects in e-Science (after 2008). IBM
will provide on-going support and will assist in making Grid computing
available for business as well as for academic applications.
Analysis: The protracted timetable would seem to delay any real commercial
benefits until the next decade.
Java Community Process Gets Transparency, Flexibility Boost
(03/09/04)
The management of the Java Community Process is continuing to evolve its
standards definition process with the launch of JCP 2.6. The process
enhancements are designed to make it easier for developers to influence and
add value to the Java technology. In a related release, IBM and Sun
Microsystems are reported to be discussing the creation of an open source
version of Sun's Java Technology.
Analysis: Improvements in the openness of the JCP standards process will
foster collaboration and bolster Java in the middleware wars. An open source
version would help even more.
BDO Seidman Selects Corio Applications On Demand (03/09/04)
Corio Inc, an ASP offering out-sourced enterprise application solutions,
has
announced a customer win at BDO Seidman, LLP.
Analysis: Hosted or out-sourced applications represent a very simple form
of
"on demand" computing or utility computing.
City Of Cambridge Boosts IT Output With Utility Computing (03/09/04)
VERITAS Software Corp has announced that the city of Cambridge, Mass., has
streamlined the administration of its PeopleSoft payroll and benefits database
through the use of VERITAS Indepth application performance management software
for Microsoft SQL Server.
Analysis: Management of application performance is a requirement for
application-based SLAs, which are one piece of the puzzle underlying utility
computing.
VERITAS, BearingPoint To Offer New App Performance Services
(03/08/04)
VERITAS Software has announced that BearingPoint Inc has developed a suite
of
services based on the VERITAS i3 suite of application performance management
software.
Analysis: Outsourcing application performance management could be viewed as
a
step toward outsourcing IT or toward utility computing.
Pukka Software Releases VirtualAD For Active Directories (03/08/04)
Pukka Software has released the VirtualAD 2.0 program, a a new version of a
tool used for design, analysis and reporting in Microsoft Active Directory
(AD) based networks.
Analysis: This announcement is evidently included in the "Breaking News"
segment because of a hit on the word "virtual." GRIDtoday needs to tighten
down its news filters.
BMC, RSA To Provide Comprehensive Access Management Solution
(03/08/04)
BMC Software Inc and RSA Security Inc announced that RSA SecurID and RSA
ClearTrust trusted identity and access management solutions have been
certified for interworking with BMC Software's CONTROL-SA identity management
and resource provisioning solution.
Analysis: This announcement is primarily relevant to security management in
a
general enterprise IT environment.
|