Aug 2005
Report Six: Grid Computing – Managing Data on Grids

The compute grid is well understood today; however, much less time has been devoted to analyzing how data gets to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, and to how this overall process is managed. As the momentum of enterprise grid adoption builds, the ability to put data in the most suitable places, so that it can be shared with other applications when required, is increasingly coming into the spotlight. Meanwhile, industry leadership in this area is, without a doubt, still up in the air.

This sixth report in the 451 Grid Adoption Research Service examines the challenges and the possible solutions in managing data on grids – from the perspectives of both the end user and the technology vendor. The report analyzes the approaches of seven enterprise organizations – companies that have often needed to rely on their own in-house capabilities to successfully manage data on grids. Various vendors have taken differing approaches to this challenge – from tackling one aspect alone to attempting to build a complete stack, and from very grid-specific solutions to making a deliberate effort to not even mention grids. The report also looks at 28 technology vendors and provides a table outlining the various approaches they have taken to providing data management capabilities to their customers.

> Early-adopter case studies: ABN Amro, Audi, Bear Stearns, GlaxoSmithKline, Markit and Sanofi-Aventis.

> Vendor assessments:

- Caching vendors: ActiveGrid, Ciphergrid, Exludus, GigaSpaces, Paremus, Tangosol and TurboWorx

- Object and data fabric vendors: GemStone, InterSystems, Integrasoft, Objectivity and Progress Software

- Grid vendors: Avaki (Sybase), DataSynapse, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Platform Computing, Sun Microsystems and United Devices

- Data integration and database vendors: Informatica, Oracle and TimesTen (Oracle)

- Storage vendors: EMC, Ibrix, Network Appliance and Nirvana Storage

- Other vendors: Microsoft and SAS.

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