IBM unveils grid computing concept for future IT

Computerworld - Having jumped into the world of Linux with a $1 billion commitment this year, IBM is now about to make a foray into what it thinks will be the next big direction in IT: grid computing.

The idea, to link together and harness the massive combined computing power of all of IBM's worldwide data centers to provide customers with the computing resources they need on demand, could help businesses reduce IT costs while expanding capabilities, according to IBM.

In an announcement today, IBM said it has been chosen to further the development of a national grid being created by the British government for collaborative scientific research. The project will also be used to show how a system using the combined computing power of remote data centers could work worldwide for science and business.

The financial terms of the deal weren't announced.

"This is about the next big thing" after the creation of the Internet, said John Patrick, vice president of Internet technology at IBM. Such a network could help create enough computing power globally to make breakthrough medical discoveries, develop better designs for safer cars and produce other advances to benefit society, he said.

While the concept is similar to peer-to-peer networks, clustered supercomputers and scientific projects such as SETI@home, in which desktop PCs are being used at off-peak times to help search for extraterrestrial life, grid computing is unique because it would allow multiple users to work simultaneously rather than focusing the computing power on one task.

For business IT, the gains could include the creation of a huge virtual computing environment that provides corporate Web sites with seamless and almost limitless capacity backups, he said. Rather than having to overspend to provide for occasional peak needs, companies could use the resources of the grid network on demand.

"We see this as being very applicable to e-business," Patrick said. "It has some further maturing to do, but we're quite confident ... that we can get there. It's very real."

The big push for grid computing is to provide the ability to share computer resources to do things that are now seen as undoable, he said. "It's very much like where the Web was in 1995" as it began to be used by the public and business, Patrick said. "Six years ago, people were saying, 'This Web thing is interesting, but nobody will ever be doing their banking on it.'

"We knew it wasn't CB radio," Patrick said of the Internet. "It's here to stay."

Under the IBM model, grid