GOVERNMENT

The creators of the Globus Toolkit, the most widely-used open source Grid infrastructure software, today announced the formation of a new company, Univa Corporation, to provide commercial software, services and support for Globus software. Founded on the promise of optimizing the use of enterprise IT resources, lowering enterprise IT costs, and enabling new enterprise applications through the use of Grids built on Globus software, Univa was formed by Grid pioneers and Globus Toolkit creators Steve Tuecke, Dr. Ian Foster and Dr. Carl Kesselman. "Univa is providing what enterprise customers, large IT vendors, and systems integrators have been asking for -- a company that can deliver high quality commercial software, technical support, and professional services for Globus software," said Steve Tuecke, CEO of Univa. "We're committed to delivering and supporting enterprise Grid solutions based on Globus technology." According to Insight Research Corporation, a technology research firm based in New Jersey, the world wide market for Grid technology and services will reach $5 billion by 2008 and is doubling every year. "IBM has worked extensively with the founders of Univa in the development of open source Grid technologies," said Ken King, vice president, Grid Computing at IBM. "We expect Univa to play a key role in accelerating enterprise adoption of Grid solutions by providing commercially-supported software, professional services, and technical support for Globus-based software." The Globus Toolkit was originally developed in the mid-1990s to allow science and research organizations to share computing and data resources at laboratories around the world. Univa gives enterprises the assurance they need to deploy Globus-based solutions that support fast-changing business requirements. "The open source Globus Toolkit was embraced early on in scientific computing because its use simplified the development and deployment of computationally and data intensive applications." said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's vice president of System Software Research. "Bringing this virtual environment software technology into mainstream IT departments is the next challenge. Organizations' IT departments expect levels of support, documentation, and training which are difficult for open source communities to deliver. Organizations such as Univa are a necessary precursor to widespread adoption of this technology." Leading IT vendors with Grid strategies are already using technologies and standards based on Globus software, including Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi, IBM, NEC, Platform Computing, and Sun Microsystems. End-users of Globus software include hundreds of organizations that participate in Globus-based Grids for science, including the US TeraGrid, Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), Earth System Grid, LHC Computing Grid, Enabling Grids for E-science in Europe (EGEE), UK National Grid Service, Open Science Grid, and many others. Enterprises are also increasingly embracing Globus technology. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a project using IBM's Grid Toolbox, which incorporates Globus technology, and NS Solutions is testing the use of Globus-based Grid to improve production-planning systems at Nippon Steel. Univa is committed to open Grid standards and to contributing to the open source Globus Toolkit. Univa and its founders will continue to participate in leading industry standards initiatives in organizations such as the Global Grid Forum (GGF), Enterprise Grid Alliance (EGA) and OASIS. "Commercial initiatives are critical to the pervasive adoption of grid technologies within the enterprise," said Mark Linesch, chairman of the Global Grid Forum (GGF), a community forum leading the global standardization efforts for Grid computing worldwide. "Univa provides the commercial technology, support and services enterprise IT managers need to deploy open source, standards-based Grid software such as Globus with confidence." "With Univa offering the critical commercial support that global organizations require, open source Globus software can provide important building block components for enterprise grids," said Dr. Donald Deutsch, vice president standards strategy and architecture at Oracle and president of the Enterprise Grid Alliance. EGA is an industry consortium of 29 leading organizations created to accelerate the adoption of grid computing in public and private sector enterprises. "EGA is pleased to welcome Univa as a member of EGA. Recognizing that open standards are essential to the wide adoption of Grid in the enterprise, EGA will benefit from Globus' lengthy experience and respected leadership in Grid standardization." Univa's leadership is comprised of leading Grid pioneers and seasoned executives from successful high technology companies. Steve Tuecke, who managed the Distributed Systems Laboratory at Argonne and as lead architect of the Globus Alliance was responsible for leading the design of the Globus Toolkit, will serve as CEO. Rich Miller, a veteran Silicon Valley executive who has helped launch many successful technology companies, will serve as COO. Dr. Ian Foster and Dr. Carl Kesselman, co-editors of "The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure," and co-creators of the Globus Toolkit, will serve as Chief Open Source Strategist, and Chief Scientist, respectively. Bob Mandel, with more than 18 years executive experience in finance at Baxter Healthcare, Price Waterhouse, Tellabs and Unilever, will serve as vice president of Finance and Operations. Univa is continuing to fill out its executive team. Univa has also attracted a blue chip advisory board of industry veterans, including Eric Dean, former CIO of United Airlines; and Steve Yatko, global head of IT Research and Development for Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).