A series of IBM grid computing wins illustrates how the concept is gaining acceptance in the commercial space, according to IBM officials.
The Armonk, N.Y., company on Friday announced six new grid computing customers, five of which are commercial enterprises, said Ken King, vice president of grid computing at IBM.
“The fact that were seeing it grow across multiple industries … is broadening the scope of applicability, broadening the scope in that its happening across the world.”
Grids have gained the most traction in the high-performance computing and research areas, but King said the demand is growing for them in the business world. Grids are used as a way of pooling IT resources to give users greater flexibility and better utilization.
Where grids were once used primarily to leverage and optimize CPU power, now they are being used in the same fashion for data and applications, he said. That demand will grow as more standards are adopted, King said.
IBM announced new grid projects with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Siemens mobile group and four companies in Asia. The EPA will use IBMs Grid Toolbox software, Red Hat Inc.s Linux Enterprise 2.1 operating system, Avaki Corp.s Enterprise Information Integration software and IBMs pSeries systems in a grid to model air quality and predict health risks posed by air pollution.
The Asian companies using IBMs grid technology include NTT Communications Corp., NS Solutions—an IT subsidiary of Nippon Steel Corp.—Sinopec Corp. and Yurion Corp.
In addition, IBM announced that 10 software companies have made their products grid-enabled. Those companies include Peregrine Systems Inc., Ascential Software Corp., TurboWorx Inc. and Chordiant Software Inc.
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