GRIDtoday has announced the winners of GRIDtoday's inaugural Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards at The IDG GridWorld conference (http://www.gridworld.com/live/42/) in Washington, DC.

The GRIDtoday Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards are determined through a survey of thousands of GRIDtoday readers, and will be a permanent annual feature of the publication.

GRIDtoday has designated two categories of awards: (1) Readers' Choice, where winners have been determined by a random poll of GRIDtoday readers, and (2) Editors' Choice, where winners have been determined by votes of an advisory group of recognized luminaries, contributors and editors influential in Grid and Service-Oriented IT.

Grid is being used in fields such as academic research, automotive and aerospace, bio-IT, humanities research, security and defense, financial services, government, manufacturing, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and others.

"We are very excited about this opportunity to articulate the views and opinions of our readers to recognize the accomplishments that are being made in advancing the development and adoption of Grid, Service-Oriented IT and virtualization," said Tom Tabor, publisher of GRIDtoday. "These industry recognition awards send a strong message to the recipients that the many global contributors working in or watching this important computing segment recognize their work, and consider their efforts meritorious. Our congratulations go out to all the winners."

The GRIDtoday 2006 Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Most useful and innovative Grid SOLUTION OR BUILDING BLOCK available today
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  IBM
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Platform Computing

Most innovative Grid MIDDLEWARE solution
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Platform Computing
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Univa Corporation

Most innovative STORAGE solution for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  IBM
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  eXludus

Most innovative NETWORKING solution for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Voltaire
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Cisco Systems

Most innovative Grid MANAGEMENT OR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT SOFTWARE for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Altair Engineering
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  United Devices

Best price / performance Grid SOLUTION OR BUILDING BLOCK available today
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Sun Microsystems
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  IBM

Best price / performance MIDDLEWARE solution for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Platform Computing
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:   (Tie)
                                                              United Devices
                                                              Digipede Technologies

Best price / performance STORAGE solution for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  IBM  
 Editors' Choice Award Recipients:  Terrascale Technologies

Best price / performance NETWORKING solution for a Grid implementation
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Cisco Systems
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Voltaire

Commercial organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in EARTH SCIENCES / ENERGY
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Royal Dutch / Shell Group
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  BP Global

Commercial organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in LIFE SCIENCES (includes Pharma)
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Novartis AG
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Johnson & Johnson

Commercial organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in MANUFACTURING
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  The Boeing Company
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Airbus

Commercial organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in ENTERTAINMENT
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Pixar Animation Studios     
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  DreamWorks SKG

Most Innovative Grid Implementation in FINANCIAL SERVICES
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Wachovia Corporation
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  JPMorgan Chase

Commercial organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation for BUSINESS PROCESS EFFICIENCY
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  Google
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  eBay

Research organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in support of EARTH SCIENCES / ENERGY applications
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  TeraGrid
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  D-Grid Initiative

Research organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in LIFE SCIENCES (includes Pharma)
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  RENCI TeraGrid BioPortal
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN)

Research organization demonstrating the most innovative Grid implementation in GOVERNMENT research
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  CERN
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:   (Tie)
                                                              TeraGrid
                                                              UK e-Science Programme

Research Grid initiative that you feel has earned the reputation of overall 'Top Research Grid'
 Readers' Choice Award Recipient:  CERN
 Editors' Choice Award Recipient:  TeraGrid

For more information about the awards and recipients visit http://www.gridtoday.com/rca/index.html.