The whole world is involved in this, which leads one to wonder why so few telecom companies are making noise about it. Europe has devoted significant research dollars to grid computing, as has Japan, Canada, and most other developed nations (see Dot Hill Enters the Grid, Particle Physics Ups Storage Ante, and SAN Gear No Go for Grid Computing). Sounds like the Internet in 1995, doesn't it?
Ask Steve Mullaney, VP of marketing at Force10 Networks Inc., about the Grid and he lights up, looking 16 and about to get his first car. (This is good for a marketing guy.) Telcos are no place to make hay this year or next, and going after the enterprise runs you into Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), hundreds of accounts, working through VARs, building lots of relationships... But the Grid: Hey, that's a few big players with big plans for services and the associated infrastructure. They've got the computers, the servers, the storage in-house, but they need switches, and fast ones. That's exciting.
Ahmar Abbas, managing director of Grid Technology Partners, has dived in headfirst after spending time at ONI Systems Inc. and UUNet. He's got a report out that makes a case for the Grid's lasting importance and considers it the "Next New New Thing." The Grid isn't just about IBM and supercomputers, but local grids as well, built inside a single company. If grid software can run on PCs, then all the desktops in a corporation can be part of a computing platform that can run processes that otherwise might be run on dedicated servers. In this sense, grid computing is a visible result of a trend toward peer-to-peer computing, harnessing the latent power of idle computers everywhere.
So what does this mean for the optical and data networking community? Two things: 10-Gigabit Ethernet and the reemergence of the ASP (application service provider). Here are the details.
First, 10-Gigabit Ethernet. Looking at a Grid networking architecture (such as the one here: www.teragrid.org/img/teragrid.sm.jpg), it becomes quite clear that connectivity among the many application servers, databases, and computing resources and users is most effectively accomplished by Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet is clearly the most cost-effective interface for servers, storage systems, computers, and supercomputers the muscle of the Grid.
Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer for Juniper Networks, explains how the advanced technology is transforming operations.
Contact center leaders from 8x8, Awaken Intelligence, and 360insight discuss the importance of agent experience.
AI may force enterprises to rewire parts of their data centers so they are fully optimized to run such workloads. The question is do you use Ethernet or InfiniBand?
