IBM has added 15 more grid-approved partners – including two Canadian firms – as it aims to spread the technology from researchers into the enterprise.
Announced at LinuxWorld Boston earlier this month, there are now 60 partners whose solutions are “Ready for Grid” and interoperate with IBM’s suite of software and hardware products for grid computing.
IBM’s Grid and Grow program, launched last August, is a packaged set of grid-ready software, hardware and services for companies in industries like the public, industrial and financial sectors.
Chris Pratt, manager of strategic initiatives at IBM, said users can choose from Intel, AMD and IBM to power blades servers, and Linux, Windows or IBM’s AIX operating systems.
“On top of that would be a grid scheduler — which manages the distribution of the workload across the grid -— with a choice between different vendors such as (newly-certified partners) Platform Computing, DataSynapse and Univa,” he said.
Services such as implementation, assessing the relevant application to run the grid and training around its basic are also included.
David Smith, business development manager at Markham, Ont.-based Platform Computing, said his firm and IBM are bringing their reseller partners together to create offerings that will bundle its grid scheduling middleware and IBM’s infrastructure to target specific markets.
“The majority of resellers, specifically at the regional level, have a very particular orientation to markets and industries,” said Smith. “They have a unique ability to identify the applications that go with grid infrastructure targeted at particular customers’ requirements. Working together with IBM, we are targeting specific resellers to help them accelerate net new opportunities within their various market places.”
But according to IDC Canada analyst Alan Freedman, the market in Canada is very small for grid computing. “In terms of adoption, it’s very low right now, but it’s a good strategy to start talking about grids,” said Freedman.
However, he added, cost and complexity need to be reduced, and to get critical mass appeal IBM will need its business partners. “It’s going to involve not only pre-sales type of consulting but also implementation services, whether IBM does that in-house or through its vast partner network,” he said.
Industry knowledge
“Partners bring industry knowledge, skills in specific industries or exposure to areas of business that IBM doesn’t always get,” said Pratt.
“They are the ones to look at the functionality that grid and grow brings and match it to the problems or opportunities that their customer base is experiencing.”
Pratt added that the more agile partners will look for opportunities to help customers deploy grid to solve problems.
“Rather than reinventing the wheel, partners can spend more time solving the business problem and less time building the grid.”
Ottawa-based Cognos Inc. is one of the latest ISVs to get the IBM grid and grow stamp of approval. The company’s Cognos 8 business intelligence suite is enabled to take advantage of a grid configuration, said Rupert Bonham-Carter, senior director of IBM strategic alliances at Cognos.
As the workload increases on the Cognos system, he added, the grid dynamically brings up new services and spreads the load.
“The grid and grow program is pretty new, but should a customer choose to start to orchestrate the Cognos environment in a grid fashion, they can do that with no changes to our code.”
Montreal-based Alphinat is another ISV to receive the “Ready for Grid” mark. The company enabled its government solutions portfolio on WebSphere XD, IBM’s J2EE and application server virtualization platform.
According to Alphinat’s COO Philippe Lecoq, the company wanted to make sure its product suite was IBM certified so that “in implementations for large scale clients, be they government, financial institutions or insurance companies, we can leverage the grid enabling capabilities.”
Grid computing is open to all sectors of the market, said Pratt.
“It’s about pushing the grid up and down, left and right, anybody who needs a grid can get into the space and start getting the performance and benefits associated with aggregating, sharing and virtualizing their environment and solve complex problems without having to build a specialized infrastructure,” he said.
Pratt added that IBM is working closely with partners in very specific vertical industry niches. “Grid is rapidly coming out of the academic environment and being deployed more in the business environment,” he said.
“Business is impatient, they don’t want to build computer systems, they want to solve their problems.”
