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Gt'04 SPEAKERS HIT UPON BENEFITS, OBSTACLES OF GRID DEPLOYMENT

Grid computing has been touted as a technology that will change the way companies do business. It has already shown amazing results in the scientific and academic communities, and supporters say it offers tremendous ROI by maximizing the efficiency of IT infrastructures and drastically cutting the time necessary to run complex, data-intensive applications and analyses. However, especially in the commercial sector, questions remain.

Grid Today 2004 (Gt'04), which was held May 24-26, looked to address these concerns while showcasing all the benefits that Grid technology holds for enterprises. Speakers ranged from computer industry executives to end-users and industry analysts. Here are just a few of the many highlights from the show:

• Albert Bunshaft, IBM's vice president of Grid computing sales and business development, told attendees that Grid is a major component of the company's on-demand strategy, and that more and more of IBM's commercial clients, including Charles Schwab and Shell, are utilizing the technology. Some of IBM's clients, Bunshaft said, are leery about telling how and where they are using Grid computing because of the competitive edge it gives them.

He also laid out the five areas where IBM believes Grid computing can be most beneficial. They are business analytical applications, engineering and design, research and development, government development, and enterprise optimization Grids. However, Bunshaft said he believes it will be a couple of years before we experience widespread deployment of the latter.

Bunshaft also discussed some of the obstacles that interfere with Grid deployment, citing a lack of standards as one of the major obstacles. IBM currently supports the Global Grid Forum, an organization many hold to be the main standards-making body for the Grid community.

• Jeff Mathers, director of research innovation at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, spoke of Grid's benefits in the pharmaceutical industry, where the rush to get products to market and the pressure to cut costs can be overwhelming.

J&J PRD, which uses an IBM Grid, has been able to test the effects of molecules on proteins at a level previously unheard of. According to Mathers, synthesizing these compounds and molecules in lab took up to three months. With Grid computing, however, the entire process takes about two weeks, he said.

• John Hurley, director of Grid evaluation and implementation for the Boeing Company, talked not only about the huge potential about Grid-enabled supply chains, but also about some of the problems users must overcome in order to reap the benefits.

Hurley described these obstacles as cultural, informational and budgetary, but said they can all be overcome. The seeds of successful Grid deployment can be planted by following some simple rules: vendors must be honest about what they can deliver; Grid-based applications should be user-friendly so that minimal training is necessary, as more training equals less productivity; and companies should be sure to include their security personnel from the beginning.

In fact, Hurley said, "If you don't have your security people on board from day one, you can absolutely forget it."

• Steve Yatko, IT head of global research & development for Credit Suisse First Boston, said that the technology becomes secondary when compared to Grid's role in developing service-oriented computing across the enterprise, adding that IT value will come from managing the Grid as a whole, not by managing each component separately.

Yatko also suggested that companies adopting Grid technology utilize "best-of-breed" systems, bucking a current IT trend of minimizing the number of vendors they have to deal with and consolidating on a single-vendor platform. He believes that his method is necessary for solving certain complexity issues that arise with Grid computing, and that now more than ever it is important for vendors to establish partnerships.

• Robert Cohen, a fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute, presented data showing that companies that take advantage of Grid technology can expect increased productivity and major savings as a result. The earlier companies get on board, the more they can expect to profit, Cohen said.

Cohen took a Darwinian view of Grid adoption, saying that it like survival of the fittest, with the early adopters being the fittest. When costs go down, he said, these companies will be able to reduce the prices of their products, thus earning an increase in sales and a competitive edge over their competitors.

According to the data, the industries that stand to benefit most from Grid computing are aerospace and health care. Automotive, pharmaceutical and, not surprisingly, computer companies should also see sales increases as a result.