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Sun Microsystems Inc. will announce a new Linux version of its grid computing platform at the Linuxworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Unix systems supplier moved to bolster its position as a provider of heterogeneous grid computing systems by announcing a new Linux version of Sun ONE Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software. Suns new grid offering on Linux expands the availability of Suns grid computing solution for Linux-based enterprise grids and enables users to better manage the utilization of their enterprise-wide computing resources, the company said.
Suns Linux-based grid offering will compete with similar offerings from companies like IBM Corp., which has been building a grid solution that includes the companys investment in the Linux platform.
Sun officials said the company has a three-stage vision for grid computing. The Sun ONE Grid Engine software represents the first phase, which covers departmental cluster grids. The Sun ONE Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software builds on the first stage and enables enterprise-wide grids, which can manage thousands of nodes across the organization, the company said. Meanwhile, the third stage–global grids–is forthcoming, and Sun is currently pursuing development and partnership options to achieve this, the company said.
Sun said its Sun ONE Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition 5.3 software for Linux is expected to be available by the end of year. Fees for licensing the technology will range from $20,000 for up to 50 CPUs, to $80,000 for up to 2,000 CPUs.
“Expanding access to grid technologies and spurring the adoption of grid computing across heterogeneous environments is key to Suns grid computing strategy,” said Wolfgang Gentzsch, Suns director of grid computing, in a statement. “Our Sun ONE Grid Engine software family and the Grid Engine Open Source Project have been successful in heterogeneous environments. And as our customers needs grow to enterprise-level grids, Suns grid computing portfolio can easily scale with them…”
Sun said its Sun ONE Grid Engine software, available as a free download at www.sun.com/grid, has been available for the Linux platform since January 2001 and comprises 25 percent of all Sun-based grids deployed today.
Additionally, Sun officials said the company has been instrumental in driving grid computing toward the mainstream, promoting adoption by making Sun ONE Grid Engine software for the Solaris Operating Environment and Linux platforms available as free downloads. Last summer, Sun offered grid computing technology to the open source community via the Grid Engine Project.
Sun also said its Sun ONE Grid Engine and Sun ONE Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition software power more than 5,000 cluster and enterprise grids today, with nearly 70 new grid deployments each week.
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