Platform details open grid plans

Grid computing specialist Platform Computing has developed a unified framework for grid-enabled applications in a bid to drive widespread adoption of grid computing.

In a move away from single-supplier grid infrastructures, the Enterprise Grid Computing (EGO) framework integrates mixed environments and is not led by a single vendor.

Grid computing involves the integration of an organisation's infrastructure, including servers, storage, data applications, to create a shared IT infrastructure.

EGO aims to take advantage of underutilised computing resources to better manage disparate systems and boost adoption of grid computing. The platform uses a single common agent on each server to orchestrate the sharing of resources specific to business and technical challenges faced by enterprise IT organisations.

In an attempt to expand the grid applications market and involve software makers, Platform has published a free standards-based toolkit to help developers integrate applications on to the grid platform.

Songnian Zhou, chief executive of Platform Computing said, of the development of a grid platform: "The history of IT evolution has seen a growth from small, contained computing environments to the large, heterogeneous distributed enterprises of today.

"This growth has created an opportunity for the creation and delivery of an enterprise grid platform that is customisable and extensible, to support next generation applications and fulfil and organisations resource needs."

Zhou admitted that adoption rates had been slow but the industry had woken up in the last two to three years. "Its now time for enterprises to adopt grid computing to simplify the business processes," he said.

Pricing for EGO wasn’t available, but Zhou said it would vary between businesses depending on their IT infrastructure.