Grid computing coming faster and cutting costs

Larger manufacturers are apparently more ready to adopt the benefits of ‘gird’ computing than a year ago – but almost entirely by default and, just as likely, without knowing it, or realising the significance. Reading between the lines, those are the most interesting findings of the latest global Grid Index study by analyst QuoCirca on behalf of database and applications giant Oracle. Bob Tarvey, service director at QuoCirca, says: “Suitability for deployment, whether or not companies even know what a grid is, is high, for example, in the Asia Pac region because there ahs been a lot of new IT investment there. New kit tends to be standardised and ready for virtualisation by default.” In fact, so steep is the rise in potential for use of grid that QuoCirca reckons it will come faster than many believe. “We thought grid would go mainstream by 2008, but we now think it will be significantly faster,” says Tarvey. “It may well be that by 2007 the majority of organisations will recognise the benefits of deploying [grid’] in their enterprises.” At a UK level, the Oracle Grid Index has risen to 5.3, making considerable progress from its previous value in April 2005 of 4.3, and signalling the largest increase in UK adoption yet. However, Oracle’s Grid Index also suggests that UK firms are struggling with the foundations of grid computing, and running the risk of being out-performed by competitors in Europe, North America and South East Asia. Stephen Thornton, Oracle UK database solution leader, comments: “Grid computing will be as significant to the future of business as the Internet has been today. Steps towards tackling the issue of foundation readiness must be taken to enable the UK to benefit.” Why? “Because it’s a step change in technology. The Internet was about sharing data between organisations. Grid enables much more dynamic and flexible infrastructures.” Tarvey advises newcomers to look at what he terms ‘best value grids’. “Businesses are talking about grids that enable very flexible data centres behind the firewall – as opposed to the community grid projects. “It’s about rationalisation of resources – but not just saving money or consolidating. A great example is AutoTrader [an Oracle user], which had a massive problem with delivering its service 24 hours a day because of huge peaks at lunch time with customers selling and buying cars. An enterprise grid to them means they can deploy a large proportion of their resource at the peaks leaving less critical applications to run overnight. Thornton encourages potential users to start looking now. “There are several windows of opportunity,” he says. “If they are coming up for an infrastructure refresh then the benefits and ROI can be significant. Rather than replace a big bit of tin, they can go for commodity hardware and grid software – so there’s not the big spike in IT investment every five years. The other thing is they can re-use their existing hardware and virtualise it.”