Oracle empowers the future of Grid Computing (page 1 of 2)

Or how the electric grid is wired. Or the infrastructure your utility company manages to deliver your power. You just ask for electricity and you get it.

Grid Computing—The Basics
In the broadest sense, this electricity analogy illustrates the cornerstone idea behind grid computing—computing as a utility. You shouldn't care where your data resides, or what computer processes your request. You just ask for computing power and you get it. And if you want more, it's there. You'd never build your own power plant, as your power company (usually) supplies more power than you'll ever need; the same is true of grid computing.

This works well for the "client" side of things. But from behind the scenes on the "server" side, grid computing is all about three things—resource allocation, information sharing, and high availability. Resource allocation ensures that everyone gets the processing cycles they need and that resources don't sit idle if requests are pending. Information sharing ensures that information and applications are available where and when they're needed. And as with your electric utility, high availability is essential.

As with many technologies, such as the Internet and World Wide Web, grid computing began in the academic research community, as CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, was an early grid developer. Early adopters include financial, energy, and scientific industries. But Oracle sees greater interest in grid computing in all industries, as technologists begin to realize the grid is in their future.

If you consider the Web, it's really about presentation of information over the Internet or your intranet. Oracle thinks after presentation, the next logical step is processing. Processing information over the Internet or your intranet is exactly what the grid is all about. The grid is the next phase of the Internet, after the Web. In 1995 it was hard to see everything the Web would become, but you could tell it was going to be big—that's the state of the grid today.

Oracle's Grid Philosophy—Open, Interoperable, Standards-Based
So where does Oracle fit into grid computing? How is Oracle leveraging more than 25 years of technology leadership and innovation to deliver grid computing solutions today and tomorrow? To answer these and other questions, let's start with the beginning.

Oracle has been involved with grid computing for years, as both an end-user and a vendor, making Oracle unique among competitors. Oracle uses a grid to develop its database product, enabling faster, higher quality development and Oracle's grid allows the efficient allocation of computing resources to specific development projects on the fly, delivering much more computing power—raw processing power—than any other alternative.

The grid gives Oracle quality, productivity, and time to market benefits that add up to a strong competitive advantage. Oracle's use of grids gives us insight into problems grid users face, for a better understanding of how to make grid adoption and use as successful as possible for our customers.

As a grid vendor, Oracle delivers these same user benefits to customers—specifically an open, interoperable, standards-based approach. In fact, Oracle works with the Global Grid Forum to help develop grid standards. The Global Grid Forum is an international standards body focused on grid computing. The forum includes committees and working groups tasked with managing various aspects of grid standards, with participants from academic, research, and commercial companies.

Grid Computing Is Ready Today
Oracle believes the time for grid computing is now.