ACADEMIA

The 451 Group has found that investment banks, the leading early adopters of grid computing, are quickly moving beyond compute grids in their enterprise grid computing deployments; moreover, these compute grids are increasingly being positioned as the underlying basis - i.e., the connective `fabric' - for next-generation distributed computing environments. There has been a significant acceleration in the deployment of shared and linked grids in investment banking, shifting from what were once grid `silos.' This transition is fundamental to next-generation distributed computing models for enterprises, and it implies both a significant advance in technology deployment (including wide-area networks and data management) and the overcoming of organizational/cultural issues (crossing departments, sharing resources, ownership and control of those resources). These findings appear in a report released today by The 451 Group, a New York-based technology-industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. "Grid computing is being implemented to satisfy a variety of appetites through various approaches - from a la carte compute grids to smorgasbord-like service-oriented environments to all-you-can-eat utility IT economies and takeaway (outsourcing)," said Steve Wallage, Director of Research at The 451 Group. "Grid computing's virtualized, shared - and horizontal - IT infrastructure is being used to support a range of activities." 451 analysts found that the view from most investment banks is that, for the first time in a long time, IT looks capable of driving sustainable, long-term and linear cost savings and performance improvements for the financial services sector. Grid computing, plus supporting technologies such as blades and Linux, appear to be leading this trend. "Improved performance and enterprise `ability' are the leading drivers. Experiences of investment banks continue to demonstrate that grids do not reduce total cost of ownership or save money, but they do enable banks to make more money," said Wallage. Drivers for moving beyond compute grids at investment banks include: -- Using grids' virtualized and shared resource infrastructure to establish a new economy for the consumption of IT and charge-back for IT use (as an internal utility) -- Creating an IT platform on which to better deploy business processes (instead of shoehorning the foot) -- Using grids as the technology infrastructure on which to deploy a Web services-based infrastructure or SOA. This report, 'Grid Computing - Adoption in the Financial Sector ' is the tenth report in the 451 Grid Adoption Research Service (GARS) - an investigation into user experiences and vendor strategies. The 93-page report was written by William Fellows, Principal Analyst, with Steve Wallage, Director of Research, and Aidan Biggins, Associate Analyst. This report offers an opportunity to revisit the investment banks analyzed in an earlier GARS report, and to broaden the scope of the research to include retail banks, insurers and stock exchanges. More than 20 users are profiled in depth, along with overviews and tables showing grid deployments at other large financial institutions. The report also analyzes 10 grid vendors and financial ISVs serving this market. Key Companies Covered The report includes in-depth competitive assessments of the following vendor companies (although this is not a complete list of companies covered in various sections of the report): Altreia Solutions, ClearCube, DataSynapse, Enigmatec, GigaSpaces, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, Platform Computing and Sun Microsystems. User case studies include the following early-adopter companies: Bank of America, Bank of Montreal, BNP Paribas, Bowne, Citigroup, Genworth, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Markit, MassMutual, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, TD Bank Financial Group, UBS, Wachovia and WestLB. Report Orders To learn more about this report, or to discuss developing a client relationship with The 451 Group, contact Simon Carruthers, Vice President of Research Services, via phone at 212-505-3030 x-103, or via e-mail at: simon.carruthers@the451group.com.