Web Services Extend High-Performance Computing Grid Capabilities (cont'd)
Intel Building Blocks and Consulting Enable Grid Computing Adopters
Intel® Solution Services provides design and implementation guidance based on the full expertise of Intel's technical base.
One of Intel Solution Services’ key practices is the Enterprise Architecture Practice, which has proven expertise in developing strategies and long term roadmaps for Web services and grid computing on behalf of clients. Standards play a key role to the adoption of Web services in the grid-computing space, since ensuring interoperability is a key consideration to long-term success. Intel Solution Services empowers customers by providing expert assistance in integrating those standards into customer solutions. For customers with specific needs, assistance is available for deployment and optimization of grid-based systems under the Advanced Data Center and Application Platform Migration practices.
Intel is motivated as one of the many stewards that advance the technologies associated with grid computing, since systems based on Intel® Xeon® processors and Itanium® processors play an increasing role in the deployment of grid-computing systems worldwide. The following are a few recent developments in this area:
Intel and DataSynapse have joined up to create a powerful collaborative platform that enables Web-services-based grid computing for large-scale financial services applications. This standards-based solution is highly scalable and reliable, taking best advantage of existing resources to solve difficult computing problems.
Intel has entered into an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Education to build a national computing grid* that links together 100 of that country's universities in what is expected to be one of the most powerful grids in the world, capable of up to 15 Teraflops.
Intel, IBM, and the University of Singapore have committed to investing $8 million to create the Grid Innovation Zone* at the University, a research institution dedicated to advancing the commercial adoption of grid computing.
Intel's success lies largely in establishing relationships with customers that adopt Intel building blocks as part of their strategic technical planning. One aspect of that effort has been for Intel to devote significant resources toward building proficiency in creating large-scale enterprise infrastructures such as grid and other high-performance computing architectures. A technical white paper from Intel® Solution Services, presented by Enrique Castro-Leon, senior architect and strategist for Intel Solution Services, "Professional Services in High-Performance Computing,"* (PDF 87KB) introduces some of that organization's expertise in the field of grid computing, including the use of grid services.
Conclusion
Grid services represent a convergence between high-performance computing and Web services that enables the efficient development of grid-computing infrastructures. By basing those infrastructures on international standards such as OGSI, enterprises can help to ensure the long term scalability and extensibility of their solutions. The Globus Toolkit has become the de facto standard in the development of standards-based grid-services computing.
Intel® Solution Services provides professional consulting expertise to customers that wish to implement grid services, based on a long-standing involvement with the software technologies, in-depth knowledge of system hardware, and an efficient, worldwide system of on-site consultants and Solution Centers.
Intel® architecture forms the basis for a significant and growing portion of the installed base of grid computing architecture. The Itanium®-based platform, particularly, is proving to be very well suited to the needs of these high-performing systems. Looking forward, the dual-core and multi-core architectures of the processors code-named Montecito and Nocona, respectively, will add to the price/performance that is available today.
Given the history of Intel's support for the development of grid services, and its present expertise with their implementation, the future holds promise for grid computing systems based on Intel hardware and services.
About the Author
Matt Gillespie is an independent technical author and specializing in emerging hardware and software technologies. Matt developed training for software developers at Intel Corporation and worked in Internet Technical Services at California Federal Bank. He spent his early years as a writer and editor in the fields of financial publishing and neuroscience.
Additional Resources
The following materials are useful adjuncts to this article:
Globus Toolkit*: an open-source SDK used for building grids using grid services with the Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA), which is based on OGSI.
Intel® Web Services Developer Center: resources related to exposing functionality as a Web service, locating and invoking services, and manipulating data.
"Toward Internet Distributed Computing*": an IEEE article by several Intel engineers on the convergence of Web Services, Peer-to-Peer technologies, and Grid Computing.
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