DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /    ( Table of Contents )

Systems/Enterprise:

EGA ESTABLISHES FOOTHOLD IN JAPAN WITH REGIONAL OPERATIONS

The Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA), a consortium formed to develop enterprise Grid solutions and accelerate the deployment of Grid computing in enterprises, initiated regional activity with the formation of the Japan Regional Steering Committee (JRSC) to promote Grid adoption in Asia Pacific.

The move into Japan marks a significant milestone set by the EGA at its inception to address Grid issues in areas such as Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas. The committee's charter is to support regional activities including membership promotion and standards adoption. Additionally, the committee will be tasked with establishing liaisons with other Grid associations including the Grid Consortium Japan.

"The Grid Consortium Japan was established to share information about Grid technologies including technology development, trends and the latest research, and is contributing to the development of operating Grid testbeds and others involving Grid technology in Japan. The consortium consists of corporate bodies, universities and national institutes who support our goals," said Satoshi Sekiguchi, chair of Grid Consortium Japan. "The consortium welcomes the EGA and its regional steering committee and expects the EGA to contribute to the promotion of research and development of Grid technologies, dissemination of research results, creation of new applications, and adoption to industries."

The committee will be run by EGA sponsor members that have a special interest in EGA activities throughout Japan including EMC Japan, Hewlett-Packard Japan, Network Appliance Japan KK, NEC, Oracle Cor Japan and Sun Microsystems K.K. The JRSC will work closely with the EGA technical and marketing steering committees and will report directly to the Board.

"The launch of the Japan Regional Steering Committee brings the EGA one step closer to its goal of making Grid computing ubiquitous throughout the world," said Donald Deutsch, president of the Enterprise Grid Alliance and vice president of standards strategy and architecture for Oracle Corp. "The committee will be instrumental in the adoption of Grid computing by enterprises in Asia Pacific and will help set the stage for further EGA expansion into other geographical areas."

The Japanese market is embracing enterprise Grid computing technologies that can dramatically reduce the time, labor and cost of IT management by pooling industry-standard servers, storage and software. Over the past year, major IT players in Japan unveiled their Grid visions and product roadmaps based on emerging Grid technologies. The EGA will accelerate dissemination of enterprise Grid computing in Asia Pacific by establishing the Japan Regional Steering Committee.