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Maryann Karinch
The Open Group
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The Open Group Launches Grid Computing Event with Keynotes by Ian Foster of Argonne Lab and IBM’s Thomas Hawk

Value of Open Standards Emphasized in Both Scientific and Business Views

Boston, MA – July 22, 2003 – The Open Group conference Boundaryless Information Flow: Grid Computing opened with two complementary perspectives on the value of Grid Computing. Dr. Ian Foster, co-author of The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure, described the “Grid opportunity” to the audience of technology vendors and customers, first discussing the origins of Grid technologies in the scientific community and then moving to the new Open Grid Services Architecture. Tom Hawk, IBM’s General Manager of Grid Computing, followed with “Grid Computing: Getting Down to Business” with a look at the commercial value. The conference at the Hyatt Harborside in Boston is co-located with The Open Group’s quarterly members meeting, which runs through July 25, 2003.

The Open Group’s interactive conferences on tools to achieve Boundaryless Information Flow showcase viewpoints and best practices from technology vendors and their customers, including academia and government. The conference on Grid Computing is part of a series that has included events on Open Source, Web Services, and Information Security.

Foster said that Grid computing “coordinates distributed resources using standard, open general-purpose protocols and interfaces to deliver non-trivial qualities of service.” He looked at how Grid technologies address common eScience and eBusiness computing requirements and then presented new work on Open Grid Services Architecture, developed to generalize Grid computing concepts to create a powerful framework for distributed resource sharing and management. Foster is Associate Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago. The Distributed Systems Lab that he heads at Argonne and Chicago is home to the Globus Toolkit, the open source software that has emerged as the de facto standard for Grid computing.

Hawk explored key messages about Grid, including the assertions that Grid functionality is being built on open standards and Grid is an important first step toward on-demand services. He defined Grid computing as “distributed computing over a network, using open standards to enable heterogeneous operations.” Offering seven “Grid adoption steps,” he gave an example of a potential application in the financial services industry.

As General Manager, Grid Computing for IBM, Hawk is responsible for the strategy, marketing, advertising, development and sales of the firm’s activities in Grid computing.

For copies of the keynote presentations, contact prstaff@opengroup.org. Details of the conferences are posted on at www.opengroup.org/boston2003.

About The Open Group

The Open Group, a vendor-neutral and technology-neutral consortium, has a vision of Boundaryless Information Flow achieved through global interoperability in a secure, reliable and timely manner. The Open Group’s mission is to drive the creation of Boundaryless Information Flow by working with customers to capture, understand and address current and emerging requirements, establish policies, and share best practices; working with suppliers, consortia and standards bodies to develop consensus and facilitate interoperability, to evolve and integrate specifications and open source technologies; offering a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia; and developing and operating the industry's premier certification service and encouraging procurement of certified products.