Track 2: Network Computing

Grids to maintain the competitive edge

Organizations are facing needs for increased computing resources and cost efficiency. Grid computing and blade servers can help easen the way ahead

INFORMATION needs are increasing at an unimaginable rate every year. The biggest contributor to this has been the networked nature of information exchange. Adding to this is the growing dependence on

network services and rich content such as streaming media applications. The second conference track on Network Computing will examine how to combat the increasing demand for network computing resources.

Fuelling networked growth

Regulations are another factor driving the growth of network computing. Many regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act call for an increase in infrastructure along with strict IT policies. Since conforming to regulations is mandatory, it has spurred network computing requirements to higher levels.

The next network computing trend is that CIOs are accountable for an IT investment the way business heads are responsible for business ventures. The prime focus now is on the lower acquisition costs and operation.

While it is inevitable in such a scenario that there is a premium on how fast hardware and software network components can evolve, there is hope that technologies like grid computing and blade servers will come to the rescue offering higher performance levels at lower costs.

Grid computing takes off

Grid computing has finally managed to shake off its earlier mantle of being a concept endorsed only by the scientific community. It has now evolved to become a practical technology that can provide phenomenal and cost-effective computing capability.

The main benefit that grid computing has over traditional server-based computing is that it results in the optimal utilization of computing resources. In a typical data centre environment, it is not unusual to see certain servers performing at full load while many others lie underutilised. Grid-based computing does away with this since there is uniform load distribution. The optimized load distribution ensures increased performance boosts at a lesser cost. Grid technology can provide a pool of shared server and storage resources for enterprise applications.

Grids are also inherently more resilient and flexible than standalone systems. A properly configured grid has no single point of failure. On the flexibility side, grids are not limited to single applications but can run many applications simultaneously—without any of the resource constraints that may arise from running multiple applications on a single server.

Upper edge

Increased computing requirements have placed a heavy premium on the available silicon real estate. Servers have to provide higher performance without taking up too much of rack space. Blade servers have an advantage here due to the higher server densities that they provide at comparable costs.

Blade servers were earlier dismissed as non-feasible due to their lower server densities and higher costs. With increasing processing requirements and space constraints, server manufacturers are concentrating on making their high volume systems available in lower cost blade forms. With more organisations going for Linux on Intel platform (Lintel) due to its better performance-to-cost ratio, blade servers will become widely adopted in the enterprise space.