INDUSTRY

IBM today announced the availability of Grid Accelerated Design Service, an offering from IBM Global Services designed to help enterprise clients implement more productive Grid solutions, with a faster time to value than previously available. This new service is yet another component of IBM's commitment to Grid computing, reinforcing its leadership in the marketplace. The announcement was made today at GlobusWorld in Boston, MA. Developed by the IBM Grid Integration Center in Austin, Texas -- which integrates best-of-breed technology from IBM and IBM Business Partners -- the Grid Accelerated Design Services enable clients to build Grid solutions faster and more efficiently based on the experiences and results of other clients that have successfully deployed Grid solutions. "This offering brings together IBM's expertise in designing and delivering Grid solutions across vertical markets," said Ken King, vice president, IBM Grid computing. "Grid Accelerated Design Services highlights one of the benefits of the Grid Integration Center, which is to pass along the experiences and knowledge that IBM's services team brings to IBM clients, so that they can achieve business value from Grid computing more rapidly." The center features an environment with heterogeneous blends of hardware and software, IBM and non-IBM, and an experienced technical team which builds, tests, and documents a wide variety of Grid implementations. Grid Accelerated Design Services accelerate the design process by providing clients with a foundation for building Grid architecture solutions. The offering was constructed based on successful Grid reference implementations developed by the IBM Grid Integration Center. "For years, Grid technology has enabled labs and scientific organizations to solve complex problems. Now Grid computing is also becoming a critical component of commercial and government organizations which are realizing real, sustainable business benefits from its use," said Benoit Degreve, IBM Global Linux and Grid Services Executive. "With over 3,000 skilled Grid experts worldwide, a proven track record of Grid solution delivery, and an ever-growing suite of offerings and capabilities, IBM is well-positioned to lead Grid projects in a production environment." The new offering supports multiple applications in a heterogeneous environment integrating Grid middleware packages, workload virtualization, storage virtualization, orchestration and provisioning, and license management. In addition, the offering can help define and enforce policies and priorities to control resource sharing across organizations. Additional Grid Offerings IBM Grid Accelerated Design Services complement existing Grid solutions from IBM Global Services, including: -- Grid Innovation Workshops -- These two- and three-day workshops introduce Grid computing concepts, benefits and adoption frameworks, along with industry-specific value propositions. Initial opportunities to leverage Grid computing technologies are identified, including business process considerations, top-line economics, technology architecture and potential risks. -- Grid Value At Work Tool -- Developed by financial optimization experts from IBM Research and IBM Global Services, this tool provides detailed and quantifiable business value output for Grid computing. Using industry templates, it examines multiple Grid and non-Grid scenarios prior to implementation to predict application performance and return on investment. -- Grid Computing Application Enablement -- A service that enables applications to be adapted to operate in a heterogeneous environment and to exploit Grid computing resources. The service also includes porting efforts to one or more of the platforms running the Grid for improved processing performance. -- Grid Solution Deployment Services -- A service that includes the implementation of infrastructure, application software, middleware, management tools and management processes as needed for a successful Grid deployment.