GOVERNMENT

IBM announces support for German D-GRID initiative Initiative formed to drive nationwide GRID infrastructure / launch of a German eScience initiative / part of the action programme "IT society 2006" of the German ministry of science and education / supporting innovation in Germany -- IBM announced its support for Germany’s D-GRID initiative, during its launch at the Global GRID Forum in Berlin. The initiative, which was presented by German science minister Mrs Edelgard Bulmahn, has been formed to build a nationwide GRID infrastructure across the whole of Germany. The D-GRID initiative, which brings together universities, research institutes and organisations from the commercial sector, will lead to the development of an e-Science (enhanced science) network. It will also carry out research and development in the area of GRID software and the establishment of pilot projects in e-Science. This will also support innovation and boost research progress as one of the key driving factors for the future success of the German economy. The first phase of D-GRID includes the construction of a GRID infrastructure, development of the middleware and a pilot to run GRID applications until 2008. During the second phase, after 2008, the GRID infrastructure will become productive and used to run e-science projects. The development process will closely follow the Global GRID Forum’s standards, and include the use of the Globus Toolkit and UNICORE software. Typical application areas for D-GRID include: climate research; high energy physics; bio medical research; life sciences applications and complex engineering solutions. GRID applications are also expected to lay the foundation for e-business on demand solutions in the commercial environment, providing organisations with a higher degree of adaptability. "IBM welcomes and supports D-GRID. This represents a milestone in IT development,” said Herbert Kircher, Managing Director IBM Germany Development Lab “We have always been at the forefront of the development of GRID computing and we are very pleased to be actively involved in this initiative.” IBM will provide on-going support and expertise to the initiative and will assist in making GRID computing available for business as well as for academic applications. There are already examples of GRID technology being used cooperatively between business and universities. For example, IBM supports the Institute of Business Informatics at the University of Siegen in Germany, which is developing a GRID in conjunction with local car parts supplier companies to simulate the construction of automobile parts. “This type of cooperation is an important step towards a more flexible and cost-competitive IT structure,” said Prof. Dr. Manfred Gauer of the institute of business informatics at the university of Siegen. “The fundamental infrastructure elements such as business models, IT security and reliability are being jointly developed. Our objective here is the development of GRID based value networks. Alongside the IT infrastructure especially Collaborative Engineering will be supported by the grid. The objective here is to develop grid-based value creation networks..” For more information about IBM’s Grid computing business, visit www.ibm.com/grid .