From Grid to Cloud ...

Grid Computing Now and Forever!

Hi I'm Ian Osborne and this is my personal log of experiences which I have while responsible for the implementation of a UK project to promote the use of grid computing technologies. The project, Grid Computing Now! (GCN!) is a government funded Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) with the goals of:-

1. creating awareness in the target sectors;
2. identifying obstacles and barriers to implementation;
3. preparing UK public and private sectors for adopting grid computing technologies;
4. leveraging the knowledge and experience gained in the UK eScience Programme.

The project started in February, 2005; was officially launched in July 2005 and our website www.gridcomputingnow.org was introduced in August 2005. We have a project team of 2 people based at Intellect, the UK Hi-Tech Trade Association, in Russell Square, London; and 2 more people based in Edinburgh at the National e-Science Centre, Edinburgh University. We also have a willing bunch of enthusiastic supporters from the UK Computing Industry; eScience community; commentators, investors and some genuinely experienced users in our project Advisory Council. A sister project is run by CNR Ltd, based in Bristol, and they provide support valuable support for the GCN! web-site and are focused on smaller businesses and the organisations which serve them around the nation.

As the project has developed we've come across a whole range of people with real experiences of Grid Computing in use, both from the academic community where it is big, and from the user community where it is growing fast in some sectors, established in others and unknown in some key places.

Our definition of Grid Computing Technologies is very broad, seeking to focus on the current industry themes of Virtualisation; Distributed job management; Service oriented architectures fo example. We run technical events to educate and inform, with a particular interest in "how to" rather than simply "what"! Our web-site provides an edited source of up to date news and a growing portfolio of user case studies written by our own in-house journalist.

You might be asking why? Well, it seems to us that we already have a lot of computing capability lying around, some worked hard - if not overstretched, but much of this under used and, frankly, wasted potential. This in spite of major challenges from parent organisations to IT to deliver more value! We believe that grid computing offers some clues as to how to both increase the value of existing investments and improve efficiency, and down stream to offer the opportunity to significantly add value through tying IT infrastructure to the organisations activities themselves.

How? Well check out our web-site for ideas, keep looking for posts to this blog and we'll see!

posted by Ian Osborne, Grid Man Now! @ 7:53 AM