INDUSTRY

HP announced details of its support for ChinaGrid, one of the world's largest grid computing implementations. The grid initiative by the Chinese government is intended to extend information technology resources and services to thousands of researchers and the more than 290 million students in the country's university system. HP is the primary technology infrastructure provider for ChinaGrid, which has 15-teraflops of computing power, comprised mostly of industry-standard HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers. ChinaGrid is a national effort that runs under the direction of the China Ministry of Education. It is intended to facilitate the secure sharing of loosely coupled infrastructure and services within and across geographic and organizational boundaries. "The success of ChinaGrid is due to the collaborative efforts of technology leaders like HP," said Hai Jin, chief scientist of ChinaGrid, professor and Dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. "HP Labs has been working closely with the ChinaGrid team to develop one of the world's most advanced grid monitoring systems." A team of researchers from the new HP Labs in Beijing and from various Chinese universities is currently developing monitoring, measurement, security and visualization mechanisms for ChinaGrid. The team recently completed an advanced display wall and visualization system that showcases the ChinaGrid monitoring system. The demonstration was built exclusively with HP industry-standard server technology and display monitors and projectors, while it runs visualization software developed at Tsinghua University. When completed, the system will be known as the ChinaGrid National Monitoring Center. "HP is a leader in grid technologies and continues to invest in research and development efforts to advance grid, where application services execute on shared IT resources," said Meichun Hsu, director, HP Labs China. "We are proud to play an important role in a collaborative and secure grid computing environment for this visionary undertaking by the Ministry of Education." HP Labs researchers also are working on software agents that can be plugged into the grid system to enhance security. The team is developing an active feedback system as a service, with a solution based on HP OpenView Radia software and service-oriented architecture. HP is a leader in grid technologies HP currently focuses development resources on a number of emerging technologies, including grid. Grid technologies address challenges faced by corporate data centers in multiple locations with dispersed data across management domains by extending the boundaries of distributed IT. Grid computing involves pooling the computing power of dozens, sometimes hundreds or even thousands, of servers over a network to run programs more reliably and reduce the cost of maintaining data centers. Grid enables shared IT services that allocate IT resources dynamically on an as-needed basis, to deliver lower unit costs with faster response to business needs. This is a core component to the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy, in which business and IT are synchronized to capitalize on change. HP has collaborated on other groundbreaking grid projects that are advancing this technology. HP also is a leader in major standards bodies for grid computing. HP's Mark Linesch chairs the Global Grid Forum, which is driving development of standards key to grids adoption. Additionally, HP has had an established presence in China for more than 20 years and powers many of the IT systems of the country's universities. HP Labs China opened in November 2005 to develop a research program aligned with HP Labs' worldwide research in partnership with Chinese research institutions and major industrial customers.