Systems/Enterprise:
EGA REACHES 25 MEMBERS; FIRST VAR, END-USER JOIN
The Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA), a consortium created to accelerate the
adoption of Grid computing in the enterprise, announced a major milestone --
25 companies actively participating in and supporting the Alliance's charter.
With three new members including Avarsys, Dell and UBS Investment Bank (UBS),
the EGA will tap into their Grid expertise to help advance the EGA's goals.
These companies join a long list of leading hardware, software, technology,
storage and networking vendors that are instrumental to Grid computing
development, including EMC, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP, Intel, NEC, Network
Appliance, Oracle and Sun Microsystems. Avarsys, Dell and UBS will help
address the obstacles facing widespread adoption of enterprise Grids by
looking at best practices and solutions that are open and interoperable
through their work in the EGA's working groups, including reference models,
provisioning, security and accounting.
"We're extremely pleased to see a surge in membership from a variety of
technology practitioners who all want enterprise Grid computing to reach its
full potential," said Donald Deutsch, president of the Enterprise Grid
Alliance and vice president of standards strategy and architecture for Oracle
Corp. "The vast experiences of our new member companies are vital to this
Alliance as we create developer and user-friendly Grid computing tools and
standards essential for advancing Grid computing."
Making Grid Computing A Reality In The Enterprise
Member companies spanning from end-users and hardware providers to resellers
and academic associations are lauding the opportunities to expedite and
promote enterprise Grid computing with the EGA:
Avarsys -- First VAR
Headquartered in Atlanta, Avarsys provides enterprise Grid computing,
clustered and data management enterprise application and infrastructure
solutions aimed at providing computing resources that solve worldwide critical
and regulatory issues. As the first value added reseller (VAR) to join the
EGA, Avarsys is demonstrating enterprise Grid computing's potential in the
technology sales channel.
"As a VAR, it's essential for our business to have flexible, interoperable
solutions to provide our customers," said Todd A. Bone, founder of Avarsys.
"Without the EGA, a huge opportunity to bring these solutions to the
enterprise would have been missed. We're excited to join the team."
Dell
Dell, the number one provider of x86-based servers in the United States,
delivers customers industry-leading, standards-based solutions such as servers
and storage systems that are fundamental building blocks for the scalable
enterprise. Dell customers benefit from scaled-out architectures that provide
optimized component utilization where costs are minimized and availability and
performance are maximized.
"Dell champions industry standards to lower costs and simplify operations for
our customers," said Winston Bumpus, director of standards for Dell. "Proven
standards will help drive overall recognition and adoption of Grid computing
throughout the enterprise."
UBS -- First End User Member
The first end-user company to join the EGA, UBS implemented and operated an
enterprise Grid computing architecture during the last two years. With its
extensive experience with Grid computing, UBS' technology team knows first
hand the importance of mature scalability, tools, policy management and
provisioning technology needed to make large-scale production enterprise Grids
fully viable.
"The EGA is an important forum to see enterprise Grid technologies develop and
better integrate to address a broader range of problem scenarios, both from a
technical and an operational and management perspective," said Eric Kristoff,
IT director of UBS. "We are pleased to have an opportunity to influence the
evolution of those practices and solutions."
About Enterprise Grid Alliance
The Enterprise Grid Alliance is an open consortium focused on developing and
promoting enterprise Grid solutions. Membership is open to all organizations
via multiple participation tiers. For more information, please visit its Web
site at www.gridalliance.org.
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