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IBM Girds Grid for Mainframes/CERN
By Charles King
IBM has announced a number of grid computing
developments focused on the company’s zSeries mainframe solutions. IBM and
SuSE announced that the Globus Toolkit is now available for Linux on the
zSeries as part of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. Additionally, DataSynapse
announced the availability of LiveCluster 3G for Linux on the zSeries.
LiveCluster will allow applications on the zSeries to participate in
LiveCluster workload prioritization environments, essentially allowing the
zSeries platform to act as an application server to deliver optimal load
balancing, resource efficiency, and high availability in grid environments.
Platform Computing also announced availability of three of its products for
the IBM zSeries platform, including Platform LSF, Platform Job Scheduler, and
Platform MultiCluster, which are designed to balance workloads, accelerate
batch processing, and ease resource management across cohesive grid computing
environments. In a separate event, IBM and CERN announced that IBM would join
the CERN openlab for DataGrid applications to develop a data-management
system built on grid computing. Designed to support CERN’s new Large Haldron
Collider (LHC), the system will be based on IBM’s new StorageTank storage
virtualization technology. IBM will supply CERN with an initial 20 terabytes
of disk storage and a cluster of six Linux-based xSeries servers for a system
expected to handle up to a petabyte of data by 2005.
It is reasonable to regard these developments as
representing the present and future of IBM’s efforts in grid computing. In
present terms, the company continues to drive grid solutions both on its own
and through partnerships with key grid players such as Globus and Platform.
The essential message these announcements provide is that grid is not some
geekish dream but a computing architecture that offers workable solutions to
real world problems. The unique factor is the inclusion of IBM’s zSeries
mainframe products in the grid computing fold. While some might quibble about
the practicality of utilizing mainframes in grids, we would turn the
questioners on their heads. zSeries capabilities including dynamic server
provisioning, virtualization, high availability, and server consolidation all
offer critical support for grid environments, as evidenced by the DataSynapse
and Platform Computing offerings. In fact, their ability to support
heterogeneous platforms, manage multiple workloads, and interact with key IT
resources makes mainframes look and act like standalone grids. Realistically,
we do not believe these new products will drive notable mainframe sales, at
least not initially, but we expect them to provide intriguing solutions for
existing mainframe customers looking for ways to extend zSeries performance, reliability,
and efficiency across larger data environments.
CERN represents a grid future focused on collecting,
storing, accessing, and utilizing huge quantities of research data. Though
the LHC’s emphasis on Big Bang theorizing may limit its practical application
to daily pursuits, its metaphorical influence will be galactic. We see IBM
benefiting from its involvement with CERN as threefold. First, simply being
invited to the CERN party denotes a measure of bragging rights not every
vendor enjoys. Additionally, the CERN openlab will offer IBM a highly public
and demanding environment to test technologies that might eventually have
commercial applications. Finally, CERN’s choice of StorageTank provides this
oft discussed but little seen storage virtualization solution a higher level
of validation than IBM’s ongoing assurances.
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The War, in Internet Time
By Jim Balderston
The Pew Internet and American Life project this week
released its latest findings concerning the use of the Internet as a source
of information about the ongoing conflict in Iraq. According to the survey,
conducted from March 20-25 and sampling 1,600 Americans, a total of which 999
were Internet users, approximately 77% of online Americans have used the
Internet in connection with the war, by viewing, sending, or receiving
war-related information. While the report noted that television is still the
dominant medium for gathering war-related news, 17% report that the Internet
is their primary war news source about the ongoing conflict. That number is
up significantly from the 3% that told survey takers the Internet was the
primary source of news after the events of 9/11/2001. Prior to the Iraq
invasion, 26% of the Internet users said they were using the medium as their
primary source of information. The primary source of online news remains the
mainstream media, with TV network and newspaper sites being the largest
sources of news gathered online. Foreign news sites are viewed by about a
third of the users seeing the mainstream US media sites, and Weblogs are
making a small, but significant impact on news gathering habits. Four percent
of users are using Weblogs for information. The report notes that the primary
values of the Internet for news gathering are getting news from a variety of
sources, getting up-to-the-minute news, getting news with a different
viewpoint than traditional news sources, and getting news with a point of
view other than official government sources. All of these values scored
higher than 50%. The report also noted that younger Internet users – under
the age of thirty – are the most likely to say the Internet helps them keep
abreast of the news.
This report notes that even in the short time
between the events of 9/11 and the Iraqi conflict, the Internet continues to
gain substantial traction as a “go to” news medium. While television still
dominates as a news source for the war, we suspect that its built-in edge to
present the war in the most dramatic fashion – through video images – will
continue to make it the news source of choice for many Americans until video
images on the Internet are of comparable quality. As it is now, there really
is no comparison, especially in the arena of the already-grainy videophone
transmissions. It is also interesting to note that major media Web sites are
the most popular for Internet users seeking war information. We suspect those
people in these traditional media outlets that in the past had to push hard
to develop Web presences for these sometime reluctant news outlets feel just
a little bit more satisfaction these days as a result. Online brand extension
is a powerful tool, it would appear.
While the Internet remains for most people a
secondary source of war news, we note that younger users are making it much
more of a habit to use the medium as not only a primary source of news, but
one that has a high value of offering up-to-date information and a good mix
of it to boot. That can only mean, we believe, that these types of numbers
will climb in the future. We also suspect that the increased adoption and
availability of broadband will shrink some of the built in advantage that network
TV holds in the way of presenting video images, especially if the network
sources make more of their video reports available online. Already, CNN is
charging for such feeds. We suspect this is a trend that will continue going
forward as well. While non-mainstream news sources trail the big media
outlets in Internet usage, their increased presence must surely be noted as
significant. Weblogs are making themselves known; they are at a point where
dramatic statistical improvement is a near certainty as one considers the
obverse of the law of large numbers. Here, with a small toehold in the
Internet news spaces, Weblogs have nowhere to go but up, not only as
providers of unique content, but as filters and aggregators of many sources
of the news behind the news. The revolution, in all its banality, continues
unabated.
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Vendors Who Swim with the Penguins:
Sun Retools Linux/x86 Plans
By Charles King
Media outlets reported this week that Sun
Microsystems plans to eliminate its customized Sun Linux product and base its
Linux solutions of mainstream Linux distributions. To that end, Sun said
candidates for Linux discussions would include RedHat, SuSE, MandrakeSoft,
and Debian. As part of its efforts, Sun will incorporate Linux (along with
Solaris) as a foundation for Project Orion, an integrated server software
bundle the company said it plans to deliver to customers later in 2003.
Initially, Project Orion components will include Sun’s application server,
directory server, identity server, messaging server, portal server, and
clustering software. Sun also plans to make sure that Linux solutions run on
the company’s Solaris for x86 OS. To date, the company has delivered rack and
blade servers based on Intel Pentium III processors. Sun is also planning an
Intel Xeon-based rack server and is evaluating the development of products
based on AMD’s Athlon and Opteron processors.
Since this week’s reports constitute the second
retrenchment of the Linux strategy Sun announced just over a year ago,
readers should be forgiven for looking askance at this latest sunny Open
Source permutation. But while Sun’s relationship with Linux remains somewhat
thorny, this latest twist offers some suggestions that the company is finally
approaching an Open Source détente that bodes well for both Sun and its
customers. Sun seems to have realized that whatever advantages it could gain
from a customized Linux distribution were outweighed by associated costs and
effort, a view that is only sensible, in our view. More importantly, Sun
appears to have come to its senses about the inevitable migration of x86 into
enterprise IT. The company’s line for years has been that x86 was a cute plaything
that belonged nowhere near corporate datacenters, but these new offerings
reflect a modified stance that x86 is actually “good enough” for certain
specialized functions. This stance allows Sun to save face while ignoring a
reality of IT life; customers buy and deploy technologies wherever and
however they please, thank you very much. The most important issue for
vendors the world over is having products in hand that customers want. In the
case of x86, the market as reflected by enterprise customer behavior has been
passing Sun by and flocking to vendors including IBM, HP, and Dell that offer
full Intel-based product families. That Sun will deliver a more complete set
of Intel-based solutions should help prevent its existing customers from
dealing with other x86 vendors, who have been known to take second and third
helpings of opportunities served up on a platter.
So is Sun’s new-found rationalism concerning Linux
and x86 something that the market and competitors should take note of? We
think so. First, Sun’s delivery of Solaris across both RISC and Intel
platforms allow the company to deliver server solutions that are notably
different than its rivals’ products. Additionally, the company is likely to
drive the Project Orion software bundle as a substantial value add that is
more substantial (and cheaper) than competitors’ more piecemeal offerings.
Overall, while Sun may be arriving a bit late for the Linux/x86 party, the
company has a history of moving aggressively and often smartly when it
finally decides on a course of action. In other words, we expect that the
easy pickings some vendors have enjoyed as a result of Sun’s scattershot
approach to x86 and Linux will become considerably tougher to harvest.
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No Antivirus Here
By Jim Balderston
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
outbreak in Asia has caused the cancellation of two Intel conferences in
Asia, news reports indicate. Also this week, an airplane arriving from Tokyo
in San Jose California was held on the runway due to concerns that several
passengers were carriers of the mysterious and sometimes deadly disease. The
passengers were cleared after being examined by doctors on the scene,
according to a wide range of national news outlets that covered the story.
Hong Kong has been noted in many media reports as a focal point of the
disease and the ease with which the disease is spread has caused panic in
various cities worldwide as well as in the U.S., notably in San Francisco’s
Chinatown district. Intel decided to cancel developer forums later this month
in Beijing and Taipei as a result of the mysterious viral outbreak as the
World Health Organization has recommended that people consider postponing
travel to Hong Kong and the neighboring Guangdong Province of mainland China.
Some 2,223 cases have been reported with 78 fatalities.
We would like to resist the cutesy wordplay take on
this issue, i.e., “Real Virus Impacts IT Industry,” but we are hard pressed
to find a way around that description despite its apparent facility. In a
world where global JIT supply chains are increasingly de rigueur, the enterprise radar must be set on full sensitivity
to detect any and all potential disruptions. There are many trip-wire
perimeter defenses that can augment the radar; the supply of various
components is certainly one very good example. Events like a well-advertised
war can be anticipated in such circumstances, for there is plenty of advance
warning about the possible paucity of chips, motherboards, memory, monitors,
and such. But SARS present a different problem altogether and one much harder
to prepare for.
SARS only impacts business through people. As an
example, consider how much business Intel may be giving up by canceling its
developer’s conferences in Asia as well as the impact such an outbreak may
have on the fabrication plants that so many US IT vendors rely on as part of
their streamlined JIT product delivery networks. Further, the potential
spread of the disease – and the panic it is apparently causing – could move
throughout Asia to places like India, where many IT companies have substantial
investments in software development resulting in major impacts on
innovations. There are times when it is very important to bring one’s head up
from the work at hand and see the larger picture. While values such as
innovation, CTO, ROI, and cutting edge technology may be worshipped
internally, they can lead to a heads-down mentality that can effectively turn
off the enterprise radar looking for disruptive events out on the horizon.
While JIT supply chains are all the rage and quite sexy when they work, they
come with unexpected risks that can only be seen when situations like the
SARS outbreak appear. Word to the wise.
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