Summary: Challenge-The-Expert

"IBM's Vision for the Next Generation Data Center Enabled by Commercial Grids"

Thursday, May 8, 2003

By Mr. Mark Cathcart, IBM Distinguished Engineer; Member, IBM Academy of Technology; IBM On Demand Systems Environment Architecture and Design, IBM Corporation.

Mr. Cathcart's Presentation (.ppt) (12.4 mb)

Grid technology has made a big impact through its application in a small number of computing applications. The search for life in the universe, mapping the universe, looking for a Smallpox cure, seismic analysis, and calculating 401k values are all important - but are niche computing applications. The next generation of Grid technology is based on a standard open source architecture and will have standard definitions of the services available on the Grid, which can be accessed via Web Services. All well and good, but why all this effort for a small set of applications?

At this session, participants learned why discovery and common resource models, together with enterprise clustering and data center virtualization, are likely to change computing as we know, understand, and use it today. Think utility computing is just ASPs warmed over? Think again! The commodity business transaction is on its way. Pay for your computing as you need it, how you need it and most importantly, when you need it.

At this Challenge-the-Expert, Mr. Cathcart discussed what "underware" is and why the Open Grid Services Architecture will become a meta-OS, delivering services far beyond the current Grid realm. Mr. Cathcart's presentation will be available on the Center's website in the near future.